Goodbye Lawyers, Hello Robo Attorneys: What Does This Mean for the Future of Education?
Memorizing the "correct answer" is fast becoming passe
I remember the first time an attorney couple started to use the Internet to sell an ebook for those who wanted to migrate to USA. It was 1993 or something like that. I forgot the exact date.
But I remember the howl and outrage of ARPANET puritans who insisted the Internet should be used only for pure research and communication purposes and not for vulgar capitalism.
The rest is history. The couple ended up laughing all the way to the bank. The rest is Amazon.
Now we have the world’s first Robot Attorney for traffic violations. In a few years I bet there’ll be robot attorneys at work for all kinds of law suits.
Knowing the answers is becoming fast passe, thanks to AI.
The robot, Deep Blue, that beat Gary Kasparov at chess will beat DAs at the court, unless of course, they also start using AI. Then it’ll be robots on robots. The gladiators of the 21st century.
Education Anyone?
So, what will happen to the future of law schools, and education in general?
We are all trained to memorize answers, the more the better.
We memorized dates of historic battles, how to take an integral, how to tell an illness from its symptoms.
All of that is becoming redundant fast.
Paying $150,000 for three years of law school? But why? The RoboAttorney already knows every page and every sentence in every law book ever written. All you need to do is… ask.
But that’s the rub… How are you going to ask?
You need to know the QUESTIONS. If you don’t, the little red light will keep blinking and waiting for your input. You’d be as lost as the attorney back in the 20th century who had amnesia and all of a sudden forgot her contract law or tort law.
Education will fast become teaching our kids what to ask, not what to answer.
And that will in turn force us to teach the basic concepts, the heart of every subject so that the kids will learn only those questions that really matter. The rest, the answers, will be handled in a microsecond by our AI companions whispering all the details through invisible earpieces.
If we ask the wrong question tomorrow, we’ll look as stupid as the guy who gives the wrong answer today.
An ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”
Buckle up. Interesting years ahead.
(Photo courtesy of cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-with-white-lightning-to-usb-cable-4631060/)
Ugur, I like this idea. I like accessing a comprehensive knowledge of case law. I like the follow on about asking the right questions - honing in on what is critical. Very interesting and very well written. D