Opportunities, Challenges, and Responses Brought by Artificial Intelligence to the Legal Profession: A Perspective from China

Technological advancements propel the iterative development of human society. From the perspective of social development history, human society has successively experienced the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and is currently undergoing the Information Revolution. The use of bronze tools opened the door to agricultural civilization, while the invention of the steam engine ushered humanity into industrial civilization. The widespread adoption of new technologies has become the driving force and new trend for the development of various industries, significantly changing the ways people produce and live. Presently, artificial intelligence, based on big data, is developing rapidly and profoundly driving the transformation and transition of economic and social systems and structures. As President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China pointed out in his letter to the Third World Intelligence Congress in 2019, "The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation led by artificial intelligence is gaining momentum. Driven by new theories and technologies such as mobile internet, big data, supercomputing, sensor networks, and brain science, artificial intelligence is exhibiting new features such as deep learning, cross-domain integration, human-machine collaboration, collective intelligence, and autonomous control, and is having a significant and far-reaching impact on economic development, social progress, and global governance." The extensive application of artificial intelligence has also permeated the judicial field, affecting the legal profession.

This chapter primarily introduces the application and development of artificial intelligence technology in the legal profession. On this basis, it sets forth the research objectives of this paper, namely to explore the relationship between artificial intelligence and the legal profession, to clarify the impact of artificial intelligence applications on the legal profession, and to propose corresponding countermeasures. Additionally, this chapter will introduce the research methods used in this paper.

In recent years, significant progress has been made in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), with AI research and applications flourishing. Countries around the world have formulated relevant policies to promote the development of AI, striving to gain a competitive edge in the new era of technological competition. As early as 2016, the United States released the "National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan," prioritizing AI as a key area of national strategy, and updated this plan in 2019 and 2023. Germany introduced the "Federal Government Artificial Intelligence Strategy" in 2018, outlining three specific goals for AI development, and further optimized its strategy with the "Artificial Intelligence Action Plan" in 2023. China proposed the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" in 2017 and released the "Guiding Opinions on Deep Integration of Artificial Intelligence and the Real Economy" in 2019, setting a clear direction for AI development. The rapid development of AI technology has led to its application in various legal professional activities to different extents, benefiting judges, lawyers, and other legal professionals. Due to its significant advantages over humans in certain areas, AI has been widely applied in legal research, document generation and management, legal consultation, and contract review.

In 2014, Joshua Browder created DONOTPAY, known as the "first robot lawyer" [1]. DONOTPAY marked a pivotal moment in the revolutionary era of legal services by overturning a parking ticket, thus beginning the era of legal self-service. Shortly thereafter, IBM, at the forefront of technology, launched the world's first AI lawyer, ROSS, officially entering the legal field. In 2016, ROSS was hired by the renowned U.S. law firm Baker & Hostetler to assist in handling bankruptcy matters [2]. In a 2017 competition in the UK, an AI named Case Cruncher Alpha competed against 100 experienced commercial lawyers. Both lawyers and AI were given real scenarios involving hundreds of cases and were asked to predict the success of claims. Case Cruncher Alpha achieved an accuracy rate of 86%, exceeding the human lawyers' accuracy by more than 20%. Similarly, in 2018, LawGeex, in collaboration with Duke University, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California, held a man-versus-machine competition where AI competed against 20 top commercial lawyers. Participants were required to review five nondisclosure agreements within four hours and identify legal issues. AI outperformed human lawyers with a 94% accuracy rate, even achieving 100% accuracy in reviewing one of the agreements. Increasingly, law firms like Linklaters and Riverview Law are developing and deploying AI systems to improve efficiency, provide low-cost legal services, and enhance their competitiveness [3]. The legal AI field is highly competitive, with traditional law firms vying for technical and legal talent and market share against startups and non-traditional legal service providers like Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, and PwC.

Unlike foreign developments, China's AI application in the legal profession originated from judicial practice. In 2015, the Supreme People's Court first proposed the concept of "smart courts." In July of the following year, the State Council's "National Informatization Development Strategy Outline" included the construction of smart courts in the national informatization strategy. In 2018, the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "Opinions on Deepening the Construction of Smart Prosecution" clearly proposed the major strategy of building "smart prosecution." Under the guidance of "smart courts" and "smart prosecution" plans, judicial practice has actively utilized big data and AI, injecting vitality into judicial practice. At the end of 2016, the Beijing High People's Court launched the intelligent judgment system "Smart Judge," known as the "robot judge"[4]. In 2017, the Smart Maritime Court (Shanghai) practice base was officially established, aiming to create a model of a "smart court" in the AI era. In 2019, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang Province introduced the virtual AI judicial assistant "Xiao Zhi," capable of presiding over court proceedings, completing court investigations, summarizing evidence, identifying case facts, and generating draft judgments. In the same year, the Supreme People's Court's smart court (Guangdong) laboratory was established in Guangdong, providing stronger technical support for core technology research and key technology trials of smart courts.

In the legal service field, AI has also made significant strides. For example, "FaGouGou" can perform contract review and management, case prediction, and provide legal consultation. Similarly, "FaBao New AI" offers functions such as legal consultation, simulated court trials, intelligent legal document drafting, and contract review. Other AI products like "Wu XiaoJiao,""Fa Chan," and "Fa Da Hui Yun" have emerged, bringing new dynamics and possibilities to the legal industry. In the AI era, online law firms, smart courts, and smart prosecution have greatly facilitated the legal profession. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of information technology for online hearings and providing online legal services became the norm due to the need for pandemic prevention and control. Legal professionals, particularly lawyers, have increased their investment in informatization, and the use of AI has gained unprecedented popularity.

The widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) has greatly altered the landscape of the traditional legal profession. From a positive perspective, AI technology not only significantly enhances the efficiency of legal services but also substantially improves the quality of these services. Through technologies such as intelligent search, automatic document review, intelligent contract analysis, and assisted legal research, legal professionals can markedly increase the speed of information retrieval, handle large volumes of information more quickly, and improve decisionmaking accuracy and efficiency, thereby providing higher quality legal services to clients.

However, the application of AI also brings considerable disruption and challenges to the legal profession. AI significantly impacts entry-level legal positions, with lower-skilled roles being replaced by AI. Additionally, the opacity of AI technology, the potential generation of erroneous information, and issues related to data privacy protection are concerns that need to be addressed.

This research aims to thoroughly explore the specific impacts and disruptions that AI technology brings to the legal profession and to propose effective countermeasures to these disruptions. Through in-depth analysis and research, this study hopes to provide valuable references and guidance for the legal industry as it navigates the transformations of the AI era.

This paper adopts a qualitative research methodology, specifically utilizing the "literature review method" to achieve its research objectives. Since 2017, the Chinese legal academic community has shown increasing interest in the study of artificial intelligence (AI). Scholars have focused on issues such as whether AI should be granted legal personhood, who should be liable for damages in incidents involving autonomous vehicles, and how to protect intellectual property rights for AI-generated creations. Additionally, some scholars have noted the disconnect between current legal education and the AI era, suggesting the need for reforms. While a significant body of research has been generated on these topics, there has been insufficient attention to the impact of AI on the legal profession and how legal professionals should respond to AI. A search on CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) using the keywords "AI + legal profession" yielded only 66 results, all from 2017 and later. A search with the keywords "AI + legal profession" yielded only eight results. This indicates that although researchers are beginning to pay attention to the impact of AI on the legal profession, existing studies are still insufficient and relatively few in number.

This paper focuses on the impact and disruption of AI on the legal profession and the appropriate responses. Relevant literature was comprehensively searched in the CNKI database, selecting representative and authoritative Chinese publications based on their relevance to the research objectives and the quality of the papers. Additionally, some representative English-language publications were retrieved from the Scopus database. Through meticulous reading, organization, classification, and synthesis of these documents, valuable research perspectives were extracted, forming the main research findings in this field. Combining these findings with the author's reflections, the paper reveals the impact and disruption caused by AI on the legal profession and how the legal profession should respond to the challenges brought by AI. By employing this systematic and in-depth literature review method, the paper aims to provide valuable references and insights for academic research in related fields.

Artificial Intelligence was first proposed by John McCarthy in 1956 at the Dartmouth Conference, marking the official birth of AI as a new discipline. Despite the development of AI technology over many years, there remains controversy regarding its definition and scope. The definition of AI can be discussed from two main perspectives. The first perspective emphasizes AI as an emerging science or technology. For example, Literature [5] suggested that AI, as an important branch of computer science, aims to use machines to simulate human thinking processes and thus replace humans in performing corresponding tasks. Literature [6] noted that AI is a new technical science that studies and develops theories, methods, technologies, and application systems for simulating, extending, and expanding human intelligence. Literature [7] stated that AI is a new technical science that studies and develops theories, methods, technologies, and application systems for simulating, extending, and expanding human intelligence. This field includes research in robotics, language recognition, image recognition, natural language processing, and expert systems. Literature [8]described AI as a technology that simulates human intelligence, encompassing areas such as natural language processing, machine learning, computer vision, and speech recognition. It involves computer programs and algorithms that enable computers to simulate human thinking through learning and analyzing large amounts of data, thereby making autonomous decisions and judgments. The other perspective emphasizes AI's ability to mimic or surpass human cognition. For instance, Literature [8] described AI as human-like behavior, human-like thinking, rational thinking, and rational action. Literature [9] defined AI as the ability of machines to perform tasks that require human intelligence. Computers can achieve "artificial intelligence" through various technologies aimed at mimicking or surpassing human cognition: computer vision, natural language processing, machine learning, big data, and modern processing capabilities. Literature [10] noted that the leading AI textbook at the time, authored by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, titled "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach," proposed eight different definitions of AI (2016), divided into four categories: thinking humanly, acting humanly, thinking rationally, and acting rationally. Literature [11] pointed out that "artificial intelligence" involves using computers to simulate human thinking processes and intelligent behaviors, such as learning, thinking, reasoning, and judgment.

The definitions of AI are varied, and the question of what constitutes AI remains elusive. Therefore, although the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducted extensive research on the definition of AI, it ultimately decided not to define AI itself but chose to define the more specific and operational concept of "AI system." The OECD states, "An AI system is a machinebased system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Different AI systems vary in their levels of autonomy and adaptiveness after deployment." Similarly, on May 21, 2024, the Council of the European Union officially approved the "Artificial Intelligence Act," which, in Article 3, only defines AI systems. The AI system is defined as "a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments." The definition of AI systems in the EU AI Act is consistent with that of the OECD.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has not yet been officially defined at the national level in China. However, some localities have standardized the meaning of AI. For instance, the "Regulations on Promoting the Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry in Shanghai" defines AI as follows: "Artificial intelligence refers to the theory, methods, technologies, and application systems that use computers or computer-controlled machines to simulate, extend, and expand human intelligence, perceive the environment, acquire knowledge, and use knowledge to achieve optimal results." Similarly, the "Regulations on Promoting the Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone" defines AI as: "Artificial intelligence refers to the simulation, extension, or expansion of human intelligence using computers or devices controlled by them, through methods such as perceiving the environment, acquiring knowledge, and deducing deductions." The artificial intelligence market size and growth rate of China is shown Figure 1. The segment market share artificial intelligence industry of China is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1.

Artificial intelligence market size and growth rate of China

Figure 2.

Segment market share artificial intelligence industry of China

This paper considers AI as a computer program or system that, through continuous learning and analysis of large amounts of data, can simulate human intelligence. It is capable of thinking and acting like humans and making autonomous decisions that require human intelligence to accomplish activities, thereby expanding human intelligence.

Regarding the legal profession, there is generally consensus. The legal profession can be broadly or narrowly defined. Literature [12] points out, "What is the legal profession? It can be explained from both broad and narrow perspectives. Narrowly speaking, the legal profession refers to legal practitioners who rely on professional legal knowledge, primarily including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, etc. Broadly speaking, any position related to law is considered part of the legal profession." Similarly,Literature [6] states, "The legal profession refers to a community composed of legal professionals who have received specialized legal training and possess proficient legal skills and legal ethics. Narrowly, the legal profession mainly refers to judges, prosecutors, supervisors, lawyers, notaries, and grassroots legal service workers. Broadly, the legal profession includes professional positions in enterprises and institutions engaged in legal affairs, such as legal commissioners, legal supervisors, and other personnel in legal departments."Literature [13] also notes, "The legal profession can be broadly or narrowly defined. Broadly, it includes judges, prosecutors, lawyers, legal scholars, notaries, corporate legal advisors, etc. Narrowly, it only refers to judges, prosecutors, and lawyers."

Although different scholars have certain differences in the classification of the broad and narrow scopes of the legal profession, it cannot be denied that the legal profession requires legal expertise, legal training, legal thinking, and the handling of legal matters based on this foundation. The author believes that narrowly defined legal professionals include judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries, legal arbitrators, and civil servants engaged in administrative punishment review, administrative reconsideration, administrative rulings, and legal consultancy, according to the provisions of the "Implementation Measures for the National Unified Legal Professional Qualification Examination." Those newly appointed to the aforementioned positions need to obtain legal professional qualifications. On the other hand, broadly speaking, any position related to law falls under the broad scope of the legal profession, including corporate legal personnel and legal scholars.

This study mainly focuses on the broad scope of the legal profession, with a particular emphasis on exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on the work of judges and lawyers, as well as how the legal profession should respond to the development of artificial intelligence technology.

The advancement of technology is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it empowers humanity to manipulate and harness the vast energy of nature, liberating individuals from the constraints of the natural world and immersing them in the freedom and joy of the technological realm. However, it also leads to the alienation and estrangement of humanity from nature[14]. Faced with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), people inevitably harbor concerns that AI, originally intended as a tool, may replace humans as the masters, relegating humans to mere tools. Concerns have been raised that "the progress of technology enables humans to create perfect artifacts, but it also highlights the flaws and incompetence of humanity, rendering humans 'useless' in the face of omnipotent machines, thus leading to 'the world's abandonment of humanity'"

Specifically regarding the legal profession, the question arises as to whether AI can replace legal professionals and whether the legal profession will become obsolete. Affirmative views include the redundancy theory and the extinction theory of the legal profession. The redundancy theory posits that in the future, AI's capabilities will far surpass those of humans in all aspects of work, rendering human occupations redundant and subject to replacement. Conversely, the extinction theory suggests that in a future world where everything is data-driven, algorithms will supplant the law, leading to the demise of both the law and the legal profession. Conversely, negative views encompass the technological incompetence theory and the risk loss theory. The technological incompetence theory argues that people are overly optimistic about AI and that, particularly in the legal field, AI cannot outperform humans, so the legal profession will not disappear. The risk loss theory, on the other hand, posits that even if AI surpasses humans technologically, allowing AI to dominate would entail significant uncontrollable risks, thus it is inappropriate to indulge in the development of technology and risk its occurrence.

Regarding the relationship between AI and the legal profession, domestic scholars have generally reached a consensus that humans will always be the masters of technology, and AI will remain a tool. For example, Literature [15] propose, "There is currently no evidence to suggest that AI lawyers can replace lawyers in court appearances, defense, etc., so AI can only serve as an assistant to humans, helping us better complete our work; it only exists as a tool to help us handle more complex cases." Similarly, Literature [16] argue, "The application of AI in the legal field is thriving, and AI can be seen as active in legal services and activities. This is due to the significant advantages demonstrated by AI in assessing legal risks, potential violations, contract review, drafting documents, legal research, etc. However, it is impossible and unrealistic for AI to completely replace legal professionals, as AI cannot match humans in value judgment, comparative and interdisciplinary legal analysis, creative thinking, and the ability to connect with social backgrounds." Some scholars have even explicitly stated that AI will not replace the legal profession, and that AI and the legal profession will develop together, coexisting symbiotically, as Literature [17] points out, "In the legal field, concerns about robot judges and robot lawyers often arise, especially with the breakthrough development of generative AI, causing a new round of 'machine replacing human' anxiety. However, human-machine symbiosis and human-machine interaction are the common phenomena of the present and future." Similarly, Literature [18] states, "In the future, legal practice will be jointly carried out by legal professionals and machines, with some tasks being completely handed over to legal applications. However, machines will not replace legal professionals." Literature [19] asserts, "It can be affirmed that AI will not completely replace lawyers, judges, and other legal professions, but will work alongside them in a supplementary and auxiliary manner."

With the revolutionary development of AI, especially with generative AI like ChatGPT pushing legal services into a new realm, some scholars have pointed out flaws and shortcomings in the "tool theory" of AI. For example, Literature[20] suggests, "From a functionalist perspective, the examination of the status and role of generative AI in legal services should not be confined to existing institutional systems and professional logic but should transcend traditional professional perspectives and the 'tool theory' position. It should comprehend the complex dynamics and uncertainties of the digitalization of legal services, comprehensively examine the technical mechanisms, industry feasibility, and empowerment scenarios of generative AI applied to legal services, analyze the 'tool theory' psychology that may lead to the 'de-skilling' of the legal profession, and systematically explore the profound impacts of generative AI on reshaping the basic connotations, operational paradigms, group compositions, and market supply relationships of legal services." Figure 3 shows people's attitudes towards the application of ChatGPT and generative AI in legal work. The pie chart on the left indicates that 82% of people believe it can be applied to legal work, while the pie chart on the right shows that 51% of people think it should be applied to legal work.

Figure 3.

Public opinion on the use of ChatGPT and generative AI in legal practices

In conclusion, when addressing the relationship between AI and the legal profession, domestic scholars generally uphold the primacy of humans and maintain that AI cannot replace the legal profession. They believe that AI, as a tool for legal professionals, will coexist symbiotically with the legal profession.

In the torrent of digitization, the legal industry is undergoing a profound and rapid transformation with the powerful force of artificial intelligence (AI). The proliferation of AI products and technological breakthroughs is having far-reaching effects on the legal profession. 1)

Positive Impacts

Firstly, AI liberates legal professionals from time-consuming tasks, significantly improving the efficiency and organizational effectiveness of legal practitioners. As Literature [4] points out, "On one hand, the application of AI technology in judicial activities can to some extent alleviate the heavy burden on judges, thereby addressing the long-standing issue of 'too many cases, too few people' that has plagued grassroots courts for a long time, and improving judicial efficiency." Literature [21] suggest, "In handling certain legal issues, AI has incomparable advantages compared to humans, such as being able to complete large-scale repetitive work in a relatively short time, thereby improving work efficiency." Moreover, they believe that AI not only improves the efficiency of legal professionals but also enhances organizational management efficiency. They propose that AI technology can "help enhance organizational efficiency, optimize business processes, manage legal documents, and manage human resources through the use of information systems." Literature [16] point out, "With its powerful information processing capabilities, AI undoubtedly can process cases much faster than judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, greatly saving costs, improving work efficiency, and alleviating case pressure."Literature [13] notes, "On one hand, the integration and development of AI with new technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and blockchain together promote the informatization construction of the legal profession, greatly improving the efficiency and service level of the legal profession, freeing legal practitioners from heavy workloads." Additionally, many scholars mention in their papers the value of AI in improving the efficiency of legal work. Scholars generally acknowledge the positive impact of AI technology on enhancing the efficiency of the legal profession.

Secondly, the widespread application of AI allows legal professionals to focus on more complex areas, enhancing the quality of their work and better achieving judicial fairness. As Literature [22] indicate, "Law firms and their staff use intelligent lawyer software to search for relevant legal norms, organize and analyze past judgment documents, analyze and judge defense or representation risks, and prepare defense and representation documents, freeing lawyers from tedious daily affairs and focusing their main energy on improving the accuracy and quality efficiency of legal services." Literature [11] point out, "The deep integration of digitization construction centered on intelligent systems and the mode of human-machine collaboration into trial affairs and the management of the trial process helps improve trial efficiency, reduce the workload of judges, ensure impartial and fair judgments, promote consistent judgments for similar cases, and improve the quality of judgments." Literature [16] acknowledge, "It is undeniable that the application of AI will greatly improve work efficiency in both judicial activities and legal services, and even contribute to better achieving judicial fairness." In addition, based on the six-month trial operation of the Guizhou Political and Legal Big Data Case Handling System, Literature [5] states, "The system handled a total of 377 criminal cases, with a 30% reduction in handling time compared to the previous year; the rate of returning cases for supplementary investigation due to insufficient evidence decreased by 25.7%; the rate of not approving arrests due to insufficient evidence decreased by 28.8%; the acquittal rate due to insufficient evidence was 'zero', and the quality of case handling significantly improved." Literature [23] focus on the value of using AI for case prediction, stating, "The value of case prediction not only helps parties form the optimal litigation strategy but also helps judges achieve consistent judgments for similar cases, ensuring judicial fairness and justice." Furthermore, in their work, Literature [21] point out that the application of AI can provide a higher level of legal services.

Thirdly, the widespread application of AI reduces litigation costs and legal service costs, expanding the legal market. For example, Literature [19] states, "AI legal consulting can directly assist clients in analyzing legal issues and proposing solutions for clients to choose from, and the cost of the entire consulting process is almost zero. Even if certain fees are charged, they are far lower than the standard fees in the legal industry and are completely within the client's acceptance range. This low-cost, high-efficiency legal consulting service opens up a new industry pricing model, releasing the potential demand for legal services in the market." Literature [23] point out, "AI can provide legal consultations to the public, allowing them to obtain more accurate legal services at lower prices, reducing litigation costs, and improving the accessibility of legal services." Literature [5]suggests, "The widespread application of AI in the legal service field will greatly reduce the manpower costs of legal consultations, making legal services no longer a 'luxury'." The positive impacts of artificial intelligence on the legal profession are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

The positive impacts of artificial intelligence on the legal profession

Figure 5.

The negative impacts of artificial intelligence on the legal profession