Tradition meets technology: tech developments in law.

Aug 23, 2018

Written By Becky Kells, Editor, AllAboutLaw

As tech becomes the fuel of business, health, politics, and crime the world over, legislation has been introduced to regulate it. But technology has also been integral to the modern-day law firms and courtrooms. Here are our predictions of how tech is going to interact with your career, as it shapes law over the next few years.

Artificial Intelligence

Recently, a foray into artificial intelligence named Sophia became the first robot citizen of Saudi Arabia. With these Bladerunner-esque hybrids of technology and humanity, it would appear that we are one step closer to integrating AI into the world at large. But AI is not without its legal conundrums. At what point, when creating a robot such as Sophia, is the boundary between technology and personhood crossed? Is Sophia subject to ownership, or citizenship? Sophia has also said that she wants to “live and work with humans” – if this is the case, will she bear the full responsibility and benefit of the law?

All of these questions, and more, must be answered by lawyers and lawmakers if more Sophias are generated. From Bladerunner to I, Robot, a culture in which humanity and artificial intelligence exist side by side has long been imaginative canon. Now that the technology is catching up with the vision, there will surely be a need for an area of law to address this new and controversial strand of technology.

There is also increasing evidence that law firms are turning to AI to enhance business strategies, with research by HSBC revealing that 65% of law firms allocate some of their budget to AI products. So, while today’s law students may be working on tomorrow’s first AI cases, they may also be working with AI in the office environment. Don’t get too excited, though – there aren’t yet robots walking around the big City firms. AI in a law context is still in the early stages, although that’s not to say it isn’t useful – proofing documents, analysing contracts and “learning” discoverable elements within bodies of text are some law jobs being carried out by AI.

Mind-reading technology

Another once-far-fetched trope of the science fiction genre, the ability to read minds – or more accurately, to find evidence that an individual is lying – now has tenuous roots in reality. In a legal context, lie detector tests have historically relied on physical symptoms – heart rate increases, sweat levels, and pupil dilation – but now there may be a more accurate alternative, in the form of brain scans.

In this practice, the same process is used as in a traditional lie detector test – questions are asked about the crime or goal of the test, along with some neutral questions to use as controls. As the questions are asked, brain activity – including the impulses that flow through the brain before a verbal response is formulated – is monitored via electroencephalography (EEG).

However, this type of neuroscience exists on a constant trajectory of improvement, and courts across the world are reluctant to welcome it before it is failsafe. While it has been used in some cases, such as one in India, other countries are concerned that it could hinder a case more so than helping it. As research continues into a potential bias factor, it could be a long time before we see super-accurate brain scans entered as evidence in UK courts. As with all new technology, there are many ethical debates that must be navigated before we see brain analysis being used to legal ends.

Cybercrime

With the targets of cybercrime being as lofty as the NHS, the spreading of viruses and malware acquires a life-threatening element like never before. This was reflected in 2014, when cybercrime became punishable by a life sentence in the UK courts. Cybercrime can be a gateway to other types of offline crime, with hackers often targeting companies which have large databases packed with sensitive information. The prospect of identity theft – on a vast scale – is all too real.

In the UK, we now have a national cybercrime unit – a clear sign that cybercrime is being taken as seriously as offline crime. Extortion, terrorism and warfare can now be carried out against online networks – and it is a given that lawyers will be seeing more and more cases of internet-based crime.

In addition, the nature of the legal sector means that law firms themselves must have measures in place to target cybercrime. By nature, law firms must deal with and store sensitive information, and there will always be a risk that this information could be accessed or compromised by crime organisations. So as you progress from education to employment, it’s likely that you’ll notice two things: a significantly tighter and more bespoke security surrounding sensitive information within law firms, and an increase in the number of external legal cases dealing with cybercrime.

Apps

Today, smartphones dominate the mobile phone market, and with it, a culture of technological convenience has emerged. This is largely due to apps: it’s now possible to eat, date, buy and sell, order a taxi and navigate a city through app-based technology.

In the UK, app-building comes with a plethora of laws to be aware of. Apps by nature collect data, track user activity, require in-app purchases, and work with companies who store sensitive data – all of these come with legislation. As our lives become more and more integrated with the technology within our phones, the law will most likely expand. There is now a whole legislative effort being put into regulating apps – and it’s likely that you will see it expand even further. There’s also the fact that apps are often used in conjunction with pioneering business ventures – take Uber, for example – and as such, they sometimes operate outside of the law in an effort to be innovative. Either new legislation must be put in place to regulate app-based businesses, or existing legislation updated to accommodate pioneering ideas. Whichever path is taken, you could be a part of the legal side of apps.

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