Still in SRA-land, the regulator pulled out all the stops last week for the announcement that it had authorised a start-up firm, Garfield Law, to provide legal advice generated by AI. ‘A landmark moment for legal services,’ Paul Philip gushed.

But did the excitement go a little too far? We were drawn to the regulator’s latest newsletter update (issue 139, so plenty of catching up to do for those joining late), which trumpets the Garfield news, and boldly states: ‘We have recently authorised the first-ever firm using AI.’

Not quite. The SRA, Obiter hopes, would be aware that many law firms already use AI. And, although we’ll need to check this with Professor Susskind, we reckon the first use of – admittedly primitive – AI dates back to ‘expert systems’ which were all the rage in the 1980s. Perhaps the SRA’s newsletter editor could do with asking AI for a fact-check in future.

Topics