Summary
Artificial intelligence ("AI") has the potential to
make significant changes to various aspects of the practice of law.
It is possible that many lawyers will incorporate AI in doing legal
work, one way or the other and to some degree or other, in the
foreseeable future.
However, while AI is a powerful tool at lawyers' disposal,
work generated by AI can contain errors, and AI has the potential
to "hallucinate", i.e. make up false information or
something that does not in fact exist.
In two recent court cases in Canada and the UK, the lawyers
submitted to the courts case authorities that did not exist,
leading the other side's lawyers and the court to suspect that
those cases had been (mis-)generated by the use of AI.