In the business pages at least, there was only one lawyer in the news last week. Almost everyone followed up the announcement that ‘Garfield AI, the world’s first AI-powered law firm authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, has helped a claimant win at trial’.
While some killjoys questioned the claim that this was ‘the first court trial won with the support of a regulated AI lawyer anywhere in the world’, Obiter thought we would subject Garfield to the Gazette’s regular ‘Lawyer in the news’ questionnaire.
And so to the site. After a quick onboarding process – including a question about politically exposed persons – we found a dialogue box. Our first stock question, ‘Why become a lawyer?’, generated: ‘I should clarify that I am not a lawyer. I am an AI legal assistant who can offer general legal help, but I am not able to act as a lawyer or give legal advice. If you would like legal advice, you should instruct a solicitor.’
We can’t argue with that. Alas, the follow-up questions appeared to stump our cyber-chum.
Thoughts on the case, career high and career low all produced the response: ‘Sorry, I don’t know the answer to that request. If you still need help, please contact support and someone can assist further.’
Unprompted, Garfield support did come back to us. They were surprisingly polite, but we notice our account is no longer active.
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