Blacklaws: AI could empower people
The UK has the opportunity to “close the justice gap” through the “appropriate use” of artificial intelligence (AI) and with the support of government and regulators, the chair of LawtechUK has said.
Christina Blacklaws said ‘agentic’ AI, which creates agents capable of autonomous action and decision-making, could be used by advice agencies to answer questions “day and night”.
Speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum this week, entitled Next steps for legal technology and innovation in legal services, Ms Blacklaws said there had been “very limited development” of AI in the area of social welfare law, which accounted for almost half of the unmet legal need in the UK.
With law firms mainly using for contract drafting, “only a handful of social enterprises and not-for-profits” were developing AI tools.
The government had a “vital role to play” to support the not-for-profit sector with “the relevant skills to ensure that AI is available regardless of income”.
The former Law Society president went on: “I genuinely believe that with the right support from government and others, we can harness AI to turbocharge development in this sector.”
Ms Blacklaws said that while, traditionally, the legal sector had been “controlled by a small number of gatekeepers”, AI could “empower people to take things into their own hands” and be transformative.
It could allow people to access the law through their voice, “negating the need for literacy skills and levelling the playing field”, and also “provide a front-end conversation” for clients, as well as analysing and removing biases.
Agentic AI – which she said has developed in an “unimaginable” way in finance, retail and banking – could be used by advice agencies to provide answers “day and night”, and take some of the “administrative burden” off them.
She added: “I genuinely believe that we have the opportunity to close the justice gap in this country with the appropriate use of AI.” With the support of government and regulators, access to justice would be improved.
Harry Borovick, general counsel at AI company Luminance, said the history of AI had reached a “crux point” with agentic systems, though they made regulation “more complex”.
Answering a question, he agreed that the impact of AI meant the regulatory framework in England and Wales may need to be adjusted so that legal advice became a reserved activity.
“If I am an ordinary consumer taking advice, there should be a regulatory framework that protects me. Regulation should be there to protect the most vulnerable.”
Mr Borovick added that, given the election of Donald Trump, he did not expect to see “active legislation” in the US on AI and instead anticipated the “unwinding of executive orders” made by Joe Biden on the issue.
A “laissez faire” approach from the US would lead to an “increasing amount of divergence” in the technology available in the US and EU.
Although the UK had an advantage over the EU in terms of not being a “first mover” in AI regulation, US law firms were likely to gain an advantage by being able to use technology not available in the UK or EU.
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