The spectre of automation seems to be an everlasting horizon, never quite materializing. Recently, news feeds have been flooded with articles discussing advances in artificial intelligence, especially focusing on traditionally challenging areas for A.I. such as human-like-writing and art.

A.I. tools such as ChatGPT, a chatbot that has been surprisingly capable of convincing readers into believing a human wrote its pieces, has made headlines by writing news articles, essays and more. However, while tools like ChatGPT represent significant progress on the A.I. frontier, they are still unable to produce complex legal documents such as wills. In Canada, the technological limit seems to be around legislative innovations such as electronic wills, which, have been introduced in British Columbia, but have yet to be permitted in Ontario. These electronic wills still require a human to prepare and execute them.

A recent article I came across spoke of some lesser known A.I. innovations which are attempting to make headway into the legal field. A US company will be running its A.I. program alongside a defendant disputing a traffic ticket, providing the said defendant real time responses through an earpiece and smartphone system.

This is a far cry from many of the complex disputes that can arise in estates, for instance will challenges, or dependant support claims. The company providing this A.I. legal tool seems to have set their eyes on assisting with smaller legal challenges, particularly traffic offences such as minor speeding and parking tickets.

For the foreseeable future, A.I. will not be arguing your will challenge. Navigating the complexities of familial disputes, testator intentions, undue influence among a myriad of other issues are outside its capabilities. It also begs the question, will A.I. ever be able to attend and manage a mediation, produce a nuanced solution that balances multiple conflicting views?

At this time, A.I. powered legal services seem like a curiosity with perhaps some limited application. However, it will be interesting to see over the coming years how it progresses.

Thank you for reading and have a great day.

Raphael Leitz