CHAT GPT – A BOON OR A CURSE FOR LAWYERS AND

LAW FIRMS?
INTRODUCTION

“Technology like art is a soaring exercise of the human imagination”- Daniel Bell
Technology nowadays is driving people crazy through their new advancements and
improvements. The loose edge on its legal implications in India is an added advantage. The
evolution of technology has got a very important role to be performed worldwide. The materials
which are posted online has got uncountable audience. Information Technology Act, 2000
covers such areas of cyber space which has got some shortcomings as well. Despite such
shortcomings on regulations, revolutionary developments are always welcomed. One such
recent sensation is the “CHAT GPT”.

WHAT IS CHAT GPT?

Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer (Chat GPT) is a large language model trained by
OPEN AI which can understand and generate text and answer wide range of questions as well
as generate creative writing and text summaries. The maker, Open AI has some big backers
like Microsoft, co-founder of LinkedIn and Khosla ventures. Elon Musk showed his presence
initially which was way back in 2015. Chat GPT comes under the REACTIVE category of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) which is the most common. It reacts with what we enter in the search
bar showing precise results rather than spending too much time on digging into the search
engines.

WORKING OF CHAT GPT:

It is trained on massive data set which understands and generate text on a wide range of topics.
Data set includes wide variety of information like books, articles and websites. It has got
acquittance over different subjects of different sectors.

UNDERSTANDING CHAT GPT:

 The absolute aim of this chatbot is to benefit humanity through Artificial Intelligence.
Such chatbots are referred to as Language models by experts. For Chat GPT that model
is called GPT 3.5.
 Language model is an underlying technology which powers the chat box. It is a
machine learning software that sifts through the data and finds patterns and chat
 interface with which people interact, this is where the answers are received from.
Generally, chatbots respond to basic customer service questions but Chat GPT is more
sophisticated.
 Open AI doesn’t reveal any specific data that we use to train, it does a lot of jobs like
surfing & spooling through the internet data, doing Wikipedia entries and so on. Chat
GPT is a part of growing field of AI i.e., Generative AI.
 Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that involves creating new content or
data using machine learning algorithms. It can be used to generate text, images, music
or other types of media. To simply put in it allows one to create brand new content.
 Funding for generative AI companies reached $1.37 billion dollars in 2022 alone. This
doesn’t stop here. Many other start-ups and firms have started emerging to replicate
these ideas in their own ways. One VC firm estimates that there are 450+ start-ups
working on generative AI.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS:

One prominent discussion swirl around generative AI’s propensity “To Replace Some Human
Workers”1. Experts say that Journalism, LAW and Translation sectors may be affected with
high impact2 and sectors like programming with low impact as they are trained to write with
basic codes.3It is also important to note that developing country like India should always hold
garlands in welcoming such technologies as this may be helpful in overall development of a
country, the iteration of CHAT GPT will not take one’s job but improvement of these
generative AI is a threat to lot of jobs. This forces us to make regulations which are accountable
in nature.

IMPACT OF CHAT GPT ON LAWYERS AND LAW FIRMS:

The contemporary issue in the law industry is that, “Will CHAT GPT work as replacement for
lawyers and law firm?”. Tensions arouse when the bot provided answers for questions in
relation to legal works and processes. The research on its impact have been made and some are
still in process in and around the world. Various key findings were put forward though their
tests and interactions with the AI bot.

1
https://www.wsj.com/articles/buzzfeed-to-use-chatgpt-creator-openai-to-help-create-some-of-its-content-
11674752660
2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/01/17/cnet-ai-articles-journalism-corrections/
3
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/27/2023/openai-has-hired-an-army-of-contractors-to-make-basic-
coding-obsolete
  This CHAT GPT acts as a perfect guide in terms of legal works which provides a more
lucid work.
 In depth analysis of the work with cent percent perfection involving dedication and
correction cannot be provided by a machine-learning programme.
 According to a 2022 report by the Legal Services Corp, “low-income Americans do
not get any or enough legal help for 92% of their substantial civil legal problems.”4
 According to 2020 Legal Trends Report, “there is a positive effect on the adoption of
this technology in law firms”5

A BOON TO LEGAL FIELD:

1. Research and Development: This can save a quite a lot of time of the lawyers rather
than involving in the traditional research methods.
2. Competition: Firms fight to be competitive so when one company is seeing positive
results using AI, it naturally forces others to adopt new technology.
3. Impressive mails: As CHAT GPT gives precise brand-new contents, attractive mails
to send client for best impression are possible for junior lawyers.
4. Drafting contracts and agreements: This is quite challenging as it may lead to curse
at a later point. Hence help for drafting can be kept at a minimal stage during the initial
times of struggle especially for junior lawyers.
5. Customizing briefs: This can customize briefs for specific judge by taking all of the
data of their past opinions and seeing which briefs succeed in winning the case.

A CURSE TO LEGAL FIELD:

1. Jobs Displacement: The tools in place of junior lawyers for legal research and
document drafting may reduce the hiring posts.
2. Lack of deep knowledge: Research in any field and the most essential part of legal life
helps in learning new and updating oneself which will be useful later at any point of
time. This bot kills the curiosity of such law students and lawyers.
3. Compromise on revenue: The current scenario pushes the interns and junior lawyers
to struggle for a pay which is not even helping them to sustain their own lives.6 Tools
like this make the situation worse by reducing the revenue.

4
https://ajrn.org/2022/04/28/legal-services-corporation-publishes-2022-justice-gap-report/
5
https://www.clio.com/resources/legal-trends/2020-report/read-online/
6
https://www.barandbench.com/columns/how-much-do-seniors-pay-juniors-part-iii-chennai
 4. Issues of security: Technologies in any type say it be tools, social media has always a
threat of security, privacy and privilege. Preference and priority always stay first to
traditional one-one human relationship while considering such issues.
5. Faults and Errors: There may be inaccurate and biased content, also the dependency
on technology for human works leads to disrespectful of lawyers in relation to skills
and efforts.
6. Quality of education: Prof. Jonathan H. Choi from University of Minnesota7,
conducted a real law exam using CHAT GPT alone without human intervention to
generate answers both multiple choice and essay and compared it with the students. It
was found that the answers of bot didn’t make it to top the exam but didn’t fail to pass
the exam as well. Looking into this, it is proved that advancements in future may lead
to many malpractices.

CHAT GPT – IN RELATION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2002

1. Sec 66C This section deals with identity theft. The person shall be liable in case of
accessing CHAT GPT for fraudulently or dishonestly make use of e-sign, password and
unique identification feature to deceive the other.
2. Sec 66D – This section deals with punishment for cheating by personation by using
computer resource. If someone uses CHAT GPT to cheat by personating other would
be liable under this section.
3. Sec 66E – This section deals with punishment for violation of piracy. The user shall be
held liable for using CHAT GPT knowingly and intentionally without consent of the
other to intrude her or his piracy.
4. Sec 66F - This section deals with punishment cyber terrorism. The person shall be held
liable for using the AI bot for activities related to cyber terrorism.
5. Sec 79- This section deals with exemption for intermediaries in certain cases where
CHAT GPT can take defence of.
6. Sec 85 – This section makes companies like Chat GPT and every person of it liable in
case of committing offences deemed to be guilty
7. Sec 43 – This section deals with penalty and compensation for damage to computer and
computer systems made while accessing data.

7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siAWjSXjQ-A&t=614s https://sansadtv.nic.in/
CONCLUSION:

CHAT GPT is a novelty and a gimmick which enables us to step forward and see the futuristic
world. How-ever each and every development must pay for its own destructions. Technology
should always be used and not relied upon every time which kills our basic creativity and
thinking skills. CHAT GPT is helpful but not essential. Regulations and controlling
mechanisms are to be made in IT act and cyber law. Replacement of jobs is not highly possible
as ethical obligation precede over convenience. Also making the most use of new
advancements to mould ourselves is equally important.