Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.
Few industries appear to have more potential for disruption by artificial intelligence than the law. Like games such as Go, which DeepMind took on to demonstrate the power of neural networks, legal systems have sets of rules and precedents. Give an AI model enough data and it can pass its bar examination. So the law has become the target of many AI start-ups, such as Harvey, a US venture that in July raised $100mn at a $1.5bn valuation from investors including Google Ventures and OpenAI. There has been a parallel rush of activity in the UK, with three legal AI start-ups — Genie AI, Luminance and Robin AI — raising more than $100mn in combined funding last year. The UK’s growth is a product of the overlay of two successful industries, one old and one new: the commercial law and the cluster of AI start-ups, particularly in London and Cambridge. “We have a rich heritage and some incredible talent. It is a great competitive advantage,” says Eleanor Lightbody, chief executive of Luminance, which was founded in 2015 in Cambridge. Slaughter and May was among Luminance’s early investors, along with the late Mike Lynch’s Invoke Capital, and it initially focused on reforming how corporate law firms operate.
Full report : Artificial Intelligence allows companies to automate the drafting of many contracts rather than relying on lawyers.