News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:An AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court. Real lawyer... by yamtaddle on Thursday January 26, 2023 @02:38PM (#34537574)
Can a lawyer get away with doing the same thing if, say, they provide all their advice as .epub files? "Why, your honor, these were merely books..."

[EDIT] That is, would they be immune from e.g. malpractice if they did this so they "weren't representing" the defendant?

Re:An AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court. Real lawyer... by cwkoss on Thursday January 26, 2023 @03:29PM (#34538321)
If the book was written about a particular case, that seems like specific legal advice.

If the book was a generalized "choose your own adventure" where you compose a sensible legal argument from selecting a particular template and filling it in with relevant data - use of the book essentially lets the user find the pre-existing legal advice that is relevant to their situation.

Chatbots as a system are arguably a lot more like the latter than the former - its a tool that someone can use to 'legal advise' themselves.

Re:An AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court. Real lawyer... by marmetio on Thursday January 26, 2023 @03:35PM (#34538399)
Are you still referring to the scenario from the article, or a different one where it's a resource you use outside of court?

> Here's how it was supposed to work: The person challenging a speeding ticket would wear smart glasses that both record court proceedings and dictate responses into the defendant's ear from a small speaker.

Also, probably wouldn't matter. The interactive human-ish-like nature might cross the line to being considered as counsel, even if you said it wasn't. See my response to your other comment.

Re:An AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court. Real lawyer... by yamtaddle on Thursday January 26, 2023 @03:42PM (#34538515)
Right, this strikes me as exactly the kind of "I'm not touching you!" argument that basically never works in a court of law. The law's not like code. "Well it's not any different than publishing a book, so this is just free speech and not legal representation"; "OK, cool, well, we both know that's sophist bullshit, judgement against you, next case."
Re:An AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court. Real lawyer... by marmetio on Thursday January 26, 2023 @04:17PM (#34538966)
People are often mistaken about how legal technicalities work.
Re:An AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court. Real lawyer... by OkayPhysicist on Thursday January 26, 2023 @04:47PM (#34539324)
By providing the words to say and arguments to make to the court, in response to a specific case or circumstance, DoNotPay was giving protected "legal advice" as opposed "legal information". There is ambiguity to find between legal advice and legal information, but that isn't.