AI will create a standard language for contracts, lawtech startup claims

Two City firms have backed a lawtech startup's initiative to create a new standard language of contracting by analysing millions of existing contracts with machine learning software. 'Lexible' is a continually updated dictionary of contract terms which is claimed to have the potential to save huge amounts of lawyers' time by standardising the interpretation and review of contracts. The announcement, by UK startup ThoughtRiver, is signficant because it marks one of the first attempts to exploit the knowledge accumulated by commercial artificial intelligence systems being installed by City firms and in-house legal departments to take on the grunt-work of contract review. ThoughtRiver says its standard language of reference terms is based on an analysis of 4 million documents. This analysis revealed wide variations in phrasing: for example in 1.4 million contracts, a simple governing-law clause was expressed in 330,000 different ways.