Demystifying Artificial Intelligence: What Lawyers Really Need to Know About Technology

Abstract

The automation of various aspects of legal services delivery, from discovery and due diligence to predictive analytics, have raised questions for university and continuing legal education. Should lawyers learn how to code? Will law firms and courts continue to be staffed primarily by humans? The answer to these questions lies in familiarity with the systems and technologies that lie behind the notion of “artificial intelligence”. To work effectively alongside technology, lawyers will need to understand it, not by learning to code, but by grasping the underlying logics.

Presenter biography

Professor Lyria Bennett Moses is Director of the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation and a Professor in the Faculty of Law at UNSW Sydney. Lyria's research explores issues around the relationship between technology and law, including the types of legal issues that arise as technology changes, how these issues are addressed in Australia and other jurisdictions, the application of standard legal categories such as property in new socio-technical contexts, the use of technologically-specific and sui generis legal rules, and the problems of treating “technology” as an object of regulation. Lyria has been a Key Researcher and Project Leader on the Data to Decisions CRC, exploring legal and policy issues surrounding the use of data and data analytics for law enforcement and national security. Lyria is also Lead of the UNSW Grand Challenge on “Living with 21^st Century Technology”.