Artificial intelligence: What is AI and will it really replace lawyers?

If you scanned social media or the headlines in many online or print-based newspapers or magazines published in 2017, you were pretty much guaranteed to see posts and articles on artificial intelligence (AI). Most of these articles suggest that AI is in the process of fundamentally changing our lives at work, home and play. And if you believe the comments in these articles, the good news is that we will have more free time to enjoy virtual-reality worlds and have our self-driving cars take us around the countryside. The bad news is that many people, including lawyers, will supposedly lose our jobs to AI technology and robots. There is no doubt, along with other major disruptions (See "Perspectives on the future of law: How the profession should respond to major disruptions"), AI technologies have and will bring changes to the legal services arena. This article attempts to sort out the hype and reality of how AI will impact the legal profession. To really understand the impact AI will have on the legal profession, we should start with a clear understanding of what AI really is. This is difficult as even AI experts can't seem to agree on a definition for AI. To further complicate things, the definition of AI has changed over time as computers have become increasingly capable.