Smart technologies have produced the realities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has become a global phenomenon, pervading and defying professional boundaries. This paper basically engages the application of AI to the practice of law, especially with respect to the ethical and pragmatic questions identified with the trend in the light of the conservative nature of the legal profession. It highlights the drift from intensive labor-based practice to seamless, technology-driven approaches, which leverages on the potentials of AI to improve access to legal services by streamlining legal procedures and outcomes. It further explores the ethical discomforts introduced by the engagement of AI, resulting in biases and lack of transparency, especially in legally sensitive areas of law which includes child custody disputes, divorce cases and criminal justice delivery. It emphasizes the need for vigilance to ensure that the integration of AI technologies does not lead to the erosion of ethical integrity of the legal profession which may impugn the judicial process. A case is made for a “human in the loop” approach which harmonizes human knowledge and AI technologies, designating the role of AI as merely complementary.
Ugochukwu Godspower Ehirim (Sun,) studied this question.