ChatGPT will be the end of lawyers?

I sense the world is somewhat enthusiastically embracing the narrative that ChatGPT is the end of lawyers. Sorry to disappoint but I think we are here for a while yet.

AI Assistants like ChatGPT are likely to significantly impact the way we deliver legal services - in a good way. AI?can potentially help:

• Basic legal research tasks
• Preparation of initial simple documents
• Explain legal concepts
• Assist with workload in Marketing, HR & IT Teams
• Maybe even redraft complex advices to make them simpler (“I would like my tax advice in the style of Seinfeld please” :))

However it needs to be used with great care as ChatGPT is a masterful deceiver - in some instances I have seen it make up case names & citations. A recent study by Stanford University showed that software developers using an AI Assistant produced worse code than developers who did not use AI. So it is important for lawyers to only experiment with it at present and double check its output.?

As for AI crushing lawyers - I do not buy that.?

My experience as co-founder of online legal services platform, LawPath, shows me that people seeking legal assistance are okay with a DIY solution up to a point but they almost always want a human lawyer to give their stamp of approval to the advice. Legal advice is about judgement at the end of the day and, at least at present, AI doesn’t have judgment.?

I expect to see great opportunities for lawyers who use AI to augment their client offering. The example I give to young lawyers is that Excel made it much easier for people to do sums. But that has not reduced the number of people in organisations with numeracy skills. They have just been freed up from routine maths tasks to provide higher level judgement-based advice.

So embrace AI - because actually there is no alternative.?