In the introduction to a recent report by Bird & Bird and LWI titled AI and the new wave of legal services, the author states what ROSS Intelligence and others have known for a long time: "In the provision of legal services, arguably the most significant emerging technology is artificial intelligence (AI), not least because of the benefits that it promises to deliver in cost and efficiency for law firms, alternative service providers and their clients." For this report, 15 general counsels (GCs) were interviewed about their current and potential use of technology, what they think of AI, the opportunities and challenges it presents, and how AI "may ultimately shape their expectations of the law firms they instruct." With insight from GCs at KPMG, WeWork, PwC, MasterCard and MetLife, among others, here's a look at what they said. There are three main points that are unsurprising. One is that the majority -- if not all -- the GCs believe there is an AI revolution underway; two, GCs are more likely to embrace technology if they are pretty darn certain it will make their lives easier and more efficient; and three, the adoption of technology in general is inconsistent not only across countries, but across organizations, as well.

Jimoh Ovbiagele is the Chief Technology Officer & co-founder of ROSS Intelligence. He is a self-taught programmer, starting at the age of 10, who founded several startups in college and worked on self-driving cars. When he was 21, Jimoh came up with the idea for and co-founded ROSS Intelligence. Two years later, he was named by the American Bar Association as a Legal Rebel and by Forbes as one of their 30 Under 30. He speaks around the world -- from Canada to China -- about artificial intelligence and the future of law.

That's right folks, in the words of police chief Martin Brody in the movie Jaws, "we're going to need a bigger boat." AI is happening in law and it's happening RIGHT NOW. There were so many people trying to get into this morning's session on AI and law, "Will Computers Replace Lawyers? The Myths, Realities and Future of Artificial Intelligence and Automation in the Law (Part 1 of 3) #ILTAG2" that we will be doing a short review session tomorrow at…10:00am in Mandalay L on the second floor! Join myself, Martin and Sam for a redux of today's session with some new fun twists for those eager ILTACON-ers who want to do it twice because, why not.

In the first of the three leading-edge sessions on artificial intelligence at this year's ILTACon, folks will be hearing from Martin Tully, Co-Chair, of Akerman LLP's Data Law Practice, and Samuel Whitman, Mayer Brown's Knowledge Management Leader (see below for speaker bios). I will be moderating this panel along with the other two in the AI series at ILTACon 2017. At the end of the panel discussion those in attendance should be well on their way towards determining a communication strategy to educate their teams about AI technologies, have an understanding about real use-cases of AI in legal today, and lastly, have the basics down when it comes to understanding terms like natural language processing and machine learning. Have suggestions for questions I should ask Martin and Samuel? Send them my way via Twitter!

ROSS Intelligence and Sedgwick LLP are pleased to announce their partnership. Sedgwick will bringing the power of ROSS Intelligence's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to its Creditors' Rights and Bankruptcy group. "We are excited to be on the cutting edge of new technology to provide superior and more efficient service to our clients," said Mike Healy, Sedgwick Chair of the Firm. "Our firm's Creditors' Rights and Bankruptcy Practice is already using AI to enhance our legal research, making it faster to analyze complex legal issues and to discover relevant'connect-the-dots' information that otherwise might go unnoticed. This technology will allow us to best represent, protect and advance the interests of our clients."

The news seemed to arrive all at once, even though Canada has long been at the forefront of technology, from Vancouver's film studios to Montreal's world-class animation talent. But in the past few months, things were different. Everyone seemed to come together (a rarity) and as a group, all parties were thinking ahead (another rarity): academia, government, non-profit organizations and businesses all came out in strong support of artificial intelligence research and development. The announcements were made in relatively quick succession: A new federal budget would provide $125 million to improve Canada's competitive and strategic advantage in AI. The University of Toronto's Vector Institute would hire roughly 25 new faculty and research scientists devoted to the field of artificial intelligence.

If you have questions/suggestions on topics for Andrew, send them over to onetake@rossintelligence.com. We look forward to your feedback.

Personally, I blame the Jetsons. For years they showed us how much fun it would be to zip around in flying cars, get dressed on a conveyer belt and have Rosie the Robot swiftly clean the house and care for the kids at the same time. It's more than likely that the first time you fell in love with -- or learned to fear -- artificial intelligence, was via pop culture, whether that be in movies, TV or comics. And depending on your age, you were probably afraid of HAL, Megatron or the dreaded Stepford Wives, and yet enthralled by Hymie, R2-D2, KITT, Bender or Data -- perhaps all of them. The point is, for many people in 2017, artificial intelligence still means T-X or WALL-E, and as ROSS's own Andrew Arruda can attest, "when I walk into a room of professionals to present our AI technology, people look behind me to see if a robot is walking in as well."