Our learned master of the rolls was last week entertaining lawyers with accounts of his latest journeys into AI land. Sir Geoffrey Vos has long been known as a technology enthusiast: woe betide anyone who invites him to read a document on paper.

But in a speech to a Manchester Law Society event he entered uncharted territory.

His headline message – illustrated with AI-created images – was that the use of so-called generative AI may rapidly become essential in the profession. This conclusion was informed by conversations with the technology itself. Last weekend, Vos said he asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini how they could help a solicitor practising in Manchester. ‘I have been tracking answers to similar questions over some months, and I would say the answers are slicker and more focused than they were.’

Of course, you might say that AI software is not an impartial judge in its own cause. But it turns out to be quite candid about its limitations. One program warned him ‘that use of generative AI could create technology and data risks that may not be fully understood’.

And capacity for critical comment seems to work both ways. ‘I asked Microsoft Copilot who was the best AI lawyer in Manchester. It gave me the names of three firms which it would be invidious to share with you, and then warned me that the word “best” was subjective and depended on my specific needs and circumstances. I felt duly ticked off.’

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