Finding the relevant law used to be work, which is now handled by AI. Another lawyer-task used to be matching the facts of a case with the relevant law; AI does this also. Yet another donkey-work used to be sifting the relevant facts from a mound of case files. That is now also done by AI.
It is now as if our work has been transformed from running to driving a car. The skill that matters now is not how fast I can run, or for how long; it is now how adept I am at driving the car. Understanding the mechanics of the engine is also not relevant. It's the relationship developed with the machine that is important now.
The relationship skill is getting trickier. From the other person, it first transformed to another species, the horse, then to another being, the machine, and now it has developed into another intelligence, the AI.
Aren't all these tools?
Different persons; lovers, our tool to feel happy and satisfied. Different species; horses and crops, our tools to be more powerful and productive. Different systems; guns and cars, our tools to do what even a community cannot do.
We built intimate relations with all these “things", with all these “tools". And we transformed ourselves accordingly in these relationships.
And now we have a different intelligence to relate to.
The driver who wins the car race is not the one who gets a better machine. He is the one who has a better relationship with his machine.
A lawyer will not be better with a better AI tool; a lawyer with a better relationship with AI will be a better lawyer. He will be able to do more in less time, with greater accuracy, and will have the time and energy left to truly see the humans within the litigation.
Our relationship with machines–the different systems, has been different. We did not have to align emotionally and intellectually. Relations with animals have been different also. They had the same emotional genome to relate to. It has been different with people too. They had the same emotional and intellectual genome to relate to.
But this time it's different.
We have a being which is neither a system, nor has emotions. It's pure intellect. The intellect of Descartes. It thinks!
We don't run with horses and cars; we make them run. Finding, recognizing, comparing, and relating logically—that which used to be our work—is now taken care of by AI. We will be fools if we keep doing these things. Now we need to focus on things that we did not have time for in pre-AI days. Now we can spare time to look at the human angle of the case. The hurt and emotions involved. The damage to person, family and community. Now we can think emotionally, take stands, and look at the bigger picture to see how we can help in the improvement of society. Now we can go back to basics, to what we always wanted to do but got lost in making sense of heaps of facts and laws.
AI is providing us an opportunity to be humans again. There is no "intelligence" in missing this opportunity.
(Tipu Salman Makhdoom)
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