Robot lawyers trigger ethical concerns

Allocating repetitive and low-grade work to robots will allow solicitors to focus on more complicated tasks, the profession's regulator claimed yesterday. In a bid to calm nerves over the growing use of artificial intelligence in the legal profession, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said that robots would help lawyers deal with increased competition in the legal services market from non-traditional providers. However, it warned that there were serious ethical issues around the use of artificial intelligence by lawyers. The authority, which regulates 140,000 practising solicitors in England and Wales, said that law firms must "be able to explain the assumptions and reasoning behind some automated decisions". That would not necessarily be easy, it said.