Ross, the world's first artificially intelligent attorney, has its first official law firm. Baker & Hostetler announced that they will be employing Ross for its bankruptcy practice, currently comprised of almost 50 lawyers.

IBM's technology has won Jeopardy, managed companies and is now practicing law. ROSS, 'the world's first artificially intelligent attorney' powered by Watson, recently landed a position at New York law firm Baker & Hostetler handling the firm's bankruptcy practice. The machine is designed to understand language, provide answers to questions, formulate hypotheses and monitor developments in the legal system. IBM's technology has won Jeopardy, managed companies and is now practicing law. ROSS, 'the world's first artificially intelligent attorney' powered by Watson, has just landed a position at New York law firm Baker & Hostetler handling the firm's bankruptcy practice Lawyers ask ROSS research questions in natural language, just like they were talking to a colleague, and the AI'reads' through the law, gathers evidence, draws inferences and returns with a'highly relevant', evidence-based answer.

Ross has four key strengths, according to its creators. First, the AI is able to answer questions with exact and pertinent responses. Unlike search engines, which give users many thousands of often-irrelevant replies, Ross delivers precise answers, without requiring lawyers to load questions with keywords. Second, Ross combs through legal texts and recent court decisions to identify changes to the law that might have a positive or negative impact on the case. Third, as a machine learning system, Ross becomes more sophisticated the more lawyers use it.

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"At BakerHostetler, we believe that emerging technologies like cognitive computing and other forms of machine learning can help enhance the services we deliver to our clients," Bob Craig, chief information officer for BakerHostetler, said in a statement. The AI won't be used in the courtroom, but it could be a key resource for lawyers preparing for litigation, the statement said. Ross claims its language processing capabilities allow it to respond to questions posed by lawyers about specific laws or cases. The computing system then gathers evidence, reads through laws and draws inferences about the material it has collected. The AI program also aims to keep lawyers up to date on new court decisions that could impact their own ongoing cases.

The boom in AI promises to enrich our lives. AI assistants keep our schedules in order; robot "crew" members help us on cruises; and "swarm AI" even offers the chance for us to win big in the gambling world. But there's a dark side of the coin as well: AI that can cause great harm. While much thought has been devoted to the dangers of AI, and centers like the Future of Life Institute in Cambridge, Ma., and the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University are focusing resources on how to support the creation of'safe' AI, few have attempted to intentionally create malevolent AI. Go with TechRepublic's Steve Ranger on an inside look at the gold-plated gadget market that's received a big boost from Apple.

The German transport ministry says General Motors' Opel division has been asked to appear before a commission looking into diesel emissions controls after an environmental group claimed two of its models are able to reduce pollution controls. The environmental group, DUH, says it has tested Opel's Zafira and Astra models and claims they reduce pollution controls at some speeds and temperatures. DUH wants them taken off the road. Opel says DUH's tests weren't objective or scientifically grounded, saying "our software was never designed to cheat or deceive." Apparently referring to the computer expert who examined the software for DUH, the company said that "the isolated conclusions of a hacker do not reflect the complex interdependencies of a modern exhaust after-treatment system."

One of the largest law firms in the US, Baker & Hostetler has hired Ross, according to a report at Futurism. Ross is a natural language legal assistant for lawyers, that is based on IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence. Ross can sift through mountains of legal data, to give succinct and direct answer to questions. It works like a search engine, but instead of giving a list of answers that again puts the onus of shifting through the data on the user, Ross just gives one most appropriate answer. Ross is different from other digital assistants that do this, because instead of basing the results on keyword indexing, Ross actually has cognitive capabilities.

I still ponder on this question "Under current US laws, can I possibly win a suit against a law firm for poor representation because they used AI on my case and I lost my case that ended up causing me to lose millions and impacted my reputation? And, could this firm lose their license through the state board resulting from my claim & suit as well as others who claimed poor representation due to AI used on their case?" I believe they can under current laws. Last week, BigLaw firm BakerHostetler announced that it was partnering with ROSS Intelligence to bring artificial intelligence to its Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Creditor Rights practice. ROSS will be used to help BakerHostetler's non-robot lawyers research more quickly and intelligently.