Embracing Legal Tech: Enhancing Competence and Client Representation with IA.

Last week, the Report and recommendations of the New York State Bar Association's Task Force on Artificial Intelligence were presented. It is a very interesting document and, in my opinion, highly recommended reading not only for lawyers but also for all companies that are currently using AI or plan to do so in the future, mindful of potential legal implications in the United States.

The document is structured into 5 main parts and seeks to analyze the impact of AI and AI Generative (AIG) use in the legal profession from ethical, social, and legal perspectives.

At the same time, it emphasizes the urgent need for lawyer training in technology (it will be impossible to apply law to something that is not understood) and the new role of lawyers as guarantors of human rights in AI utilization. Currently, many companies are beginning to hire legal profiles with AI knowledge to ensure compliance levels with the developments being implemented.

Of the five main parts of the document, I will only focus on those that I consider most practical and applicable:

Benefits and Risks of AI and AIG Use for the Legal Sector.

• General Benefits:
  

• Efficiently performs repetitive tasks

• Reduces human errors

• Increases efficiency

• Enhances human intelligence

• Economic and growth improvement for most industries Specifically in the legal industry, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to facilitate greater access to justice, particularly in countries like the U.S. where access to justice is generally very costly.
  

• Associated Risks:
  

• Inventing cases, citations, or fictitious references, or referring to non-existent legislation, articles, or legal texts, which is more common in free versions

• Providing incorrect or misleading information about the law or how it could be applied, or update errors

• Increasing discrimination based on technology access possibilities according to economic resources

• Data protection and cybersecurity risks.
  

Impact of AIG on the Legal Profession.

a. Ethical Impact

1. Duty of competence. The lawyer has an obligation to use all available resources to achieve the best resolution of the matter for the client. This implies that the non-use of AI may be considered a future breach of obligations. What is clear is that our competence is to learn to use this technology and use it by verifying its results.

2. Duty of confidentiality. The use of this technology requires express client authorization in countries like Spain.

3. Obligation of supervision. Always check that the results of AI are consistent with legal reality.

4. Impossibility of providing legal advisory services involving AI without lawyer supervision, which would not be allowed. According to current jurisprudence, AI programs can guide clients towards the forms they must complete. However, these programs cannot provide advice on the content of client responses, as that would replace the work of a human lawyer. Nevertheless, there are tasks performed by lawyers that can be carried out by AIG.
   

b. Access to Justice.

1. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI, is transforming access to justice in the U.S. legal system. There is a significant gap in access to legal services, especially for low-income populations. Generative AI has the potential to improve the accessibility and efficiency of pro bono legal services by assisting in triage, legal document summaries, legal language translation, and document drafting. However, there are challenges, such as the accuracy of legal advice generated by AI and the additional cost in terms of judicial resources to verify incorrect AI-generated legal opinions.
   

2. Pro bono organizations are adopting generative AI to enhance efficiency and serve more clients, but there is concern about whether these tools will be too costly or exacerbate existing inequities. Additionally, non-lawyer use of AI poses challenges in terms of quality and regulation. Although AI can improve access to legal information, it cannot fully replace human assistance, especially in complex or interrelated legal matters.
   

3. Overall, AI is changing how legal services are provided and received, and it is essential to address challenges to ensure that these technologies truly benefit those who need them most.
   

c. Legal Causes Arising from AI Use.

Civil proceedings are already occurring that could lead to criminal and liability proceedings, such as "deepfakes". Possible causes of charges arising from AI use could include:

• Privacy violation

• Discrimination

• Copyright infringement

• Malicious uses such as defamation

• Cyber breach The report presents cases of use and jurisprudence of some very interesting scenarios.
  

Finally, the report provides an analysis of existing legislation to date and develops highly recommended guidelines for lawyers in AI use.