Nilay Patel: AI is rewriting the rules, but law will always need humanity
Nilay Patel believes artificial intelligence has the power to change society in ways not seen since the advent of the smartphone.
“The smartphone changed so many things, so fast,” said Patel, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Verge, the technology and culture site from Vox Media. Patel delivered the second keynote address Friday for ABA Techshow, pointing out that smartphones created so many winners and losers and “there is a real hunger to see that level of change again, to create that opportunity one more time.”
“And now there is AI, and I think we can feel that pressure,” added Patel, who also is a former lawyer.
Historically, significant shifts in computing have come with shifts in how people interface with that technology, and AI is no different, Patel said. In fact, he added that it’s remarkably easier because people now can talk to a computer and, in a lot of situations, get it to do what they want.
This could become a problem for lawyers, because of the “intoxicating similarities between law and code,” Patel said. For software developers, who are trying to apply revolutionary technology like AI to everything else, their first stop could be the law, he said.
“The law already looks so much like software and already looks like the issuing of structured language to change things,” Patel said.
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But Patel also noted there are enormous differences between what he described as the “software brains” and the “lawyer brains.” One of the most notable is that lawyers “delight in the ambiguity of the law,” he said.
“We put it into the work, and it’s there for a reason,” Patel said. “It’s the thing that makes us human.”
Patel said his wife is a family lawyer who often helps clients work out their feelings in the course of her work. This is true of many kinds of lawyers, who are filling a uniquely human role that can’t be replicated by AI, he said.
While Patel said some legal work could and should be automated, clients will continue to hire lawyers because they want to interface with humans who have the expertise to help them.
“AI tools are going to change a lot of things, and it’s worth figuring out exactly what they’re good for without falling for the hype,” Patel said. “But it’s also worth making sure that they enhance the humanity of this work, the effectiveness of this work.”
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