AI Attorney Named "Ross" Just Hired By Real Law Firm

[Image Source: Unsplash Siyan Ren art collage by Leah Stephens]

Ross is the world's first artificially intelligent lawyer and he's just been hired by a real law firm, Baker & Hostetler. The law firm announced that it will be employing the AI attorney for its bankruptcy practice, which is currently staffed by 50 lawyers. According to the Futurism website,

"Ross, 'the world’s first artificially intelligent attorney” built on IBM’s cognitive computer Watson, was designed to read and understand language, postulate hypotheses when asked questions, research, and then generate responses (along with references and citations) to back up its conclusions. Ross also learns from experience, gaining speed and knowledge the more you interact with it." ~ Futurism

Ross is built upon Watson, which is basically a platform that uses machine learning and natural language processing to reveal insights from huge amounts of unstructured data. Watson is quickly able to mine facts and conclusions from enormous amounts of data and can keep up to speed on recent changes in the law. The fact that Ross can constantly be fed new litigation information without getting tired is extremely beneficial. It can also sift through thousands of results and pick out the most relevant ones. Ross also uses natural language skills, not keywords when it interacts with people and can understand questions very well.

The video below gives an overview of IBM Watson:

The AI lawyer appears to be very much in demand as other firms have signed licenses with Ross and will be making their announcements soon, according to Ross Intelligence CEO Andrew Arruda.

This announcement is definitely aligned with the opinion that AI is set to replace people in every field imaginable. Perhaps in the near future, we won't have to deal with real human used car salesmen or lawyers? According to the Career Addict website, used car salesmen and lawyers occupy 2 of the top 5 spots for "The World's 5 Sleaziest Jobs". Maybe there's a hidden, wonderful benefit of AI robots replacing human employment? One thing is for sure, we're all about to find out what benefits and detriments are coming our way and very soon at that. Now that the first AI lawyer has been hired, what job title is next?

If real companies are hiring AI robots, when will they get their own LinkedIn profiles? My best guess is that we'll start to see AI LinkedIn profiles within the next 10 years. Make sure and check back here in 10 years to see if my prediction is correct.

Article written by Leah Stephens. She is a writer, artist, and experimenter. She recently self-published her first book, Un-Crap Your Life. You can follow her on Twitter or Medium.

SEE ALSO: Retail Inventory Robots Could Replace the Need for Store Employees