AI's Impact on Law: A Self-Learner's Perspective

When I was 14 years old, I went to New Zealand to study. I primarily studied the IGCSE/Mcert/IAL courses. Afterward, due to the pandemic and financial reasons, I chose to study independently as I couldn't return to New Zealand for the time being. My idea at the time was that most of the content taught in secondary school (including textbooks, learning materials, online courses) could be easily found online, and it was more comprehensive. I could also allocate my time according to my preferred learning style, enabling me to complete the necessary courses in a shorter period.

The exam results proved my hypothesis. I self-studied and completed the A-level and TOEFL courses within a year, achieving commendable grades. During this period of self-learning, I started utilizing various online resources and began contemplating the impact that 'computer' technology could have on the world.

In 2022, I enrolled in a dual degree program in Business Administration and Law at the University of Hong Kong, receiving a scholarship. However, I later realized that it was not a wise choice for me.

I chose to pursue this program at the time for several reasons: 1. Its admission score was particularly high, and I didn't want to waste the opportunity. 2. I could complete two degrees within five years. 3. I didn't have a thorough understanding of the law courses at that time. 4. I didn't dislike law.

You can see that none of the reasons were related to my interests, and I didn't have a particular desire to pursue a career in law.

After enrolling, I discovered some interesting things. While studying law, we had to read a massive amount of documents, constantly practice writing skills, and spend a significant amount of time analyzing various issues. This often made me feel bored, as if there were endless articles to read every day. It was during this time that GPT emerged. Initially, like many classmates, I didn't think AI would have much impact on us. However, as GPT continued to advance, I gradually realized the severity of the issue. Once, I used GPT-4 to analyze an assignment given by a teacher. I inputted 50 pages of court documents and the task I needed to complete into GPT-4. In about 30 seconds, it produced an answer that was comparable to, if not better than, the reference answer provided by the teacher. I could even freely modify the format and level of detail in the text, and GPT-4 could handle it all. This was just one example. I felt hopeless because I spent nearly 10 hours on an assignment while AI could complete it in 30 seconds and sometimes even better than me.

I don't think current AI can replace professionals in the legal industry, but I believe it's only a matter of time. I don't mean it will replace all legal professionals, but it's highly likely to replace a significant portion. Law is just one industry that may be greatly affected by this. I don't want to spend five years and put in a lot of effort in a field I'm not interested in, only to end up with an unfavorable outcome.

Some may ask if we still need to learn with AI around. I believe we do, but what we need to learn may need to change. For example, after the invention of cars, we no longer needed to learn how to ride horses or select good horses, but we needed to learn how to drive cars, repair cars, manufacture cars, and make cars better. That's exactly what I want to learn, i.e., replacing 'cars' in the above sentence with 'computers/artificial intelligence'.