that activities that take up 30 per cent of working hours today could be automated by 2030, a trend partly fuelled by generative AI. In the legal field, Goldman Sachs estimated in a March report more than 40 per cent of tasks could be automated.
Gowlings, for one, has seen positive results from Alexi. The software “saves our clients money and time but also focuses our lawyers on the valuable strategic and analysis part clients come to us for,” said Ginevra Saylor, director of innovation and knowledge programs with Gowlings. “Our lawyers who have used it like it. There’s not much downside.”
One of the oddities of generative AI is that it tends to “hallucinate,” conjuring up text that seems correct but isn’t. ChatGPT can present faulty findings in the confident tone of a mansplaining pathological liar. In June, the Yukon Supreme Court and Manitoba Court of King’s Bench put out practice directives requiring lawyers to disclose when and how they used AI. Manitoba Chief Justice Glenn Joyal stated there are “legitimate concerns” about the reliability and accuracy of information derived from AI.