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Regulating The Ethics of the Unknown: Analysing Regulatory Regimes For AI-Based Legal Technology and Recommendations For its Regulation in India
The emergence of artificial intelligence has disrupted almost every industry in the modern world. Experts have no doubt that AI is set to take the legal services industry by storm as well, a field that is otherwise notorious for its reluctance towards embracing technology. AI-based legal technologies are being increasingly used in technology assisted review and other applications. The use of AI also poses questions relating to the ethical duties of lawyers. Are regulators around the world equipped to adequately monitor AI-based legal technologies? Do lawyers even have an ethical duty to use such AI-based legal technologies? Are the rules and the regulatory framework set-up by the United States of America and England that deal with AI in law, adequate? While the paper attempts to investigate into these questions, it also acknowledges that India, despite having a burgeoning legal services market has no such regulatory framework in place. This paper attempts to explore the reasons for the absence of such a framework and the challenges to faster adoption of these technologies in the country. This paper argues that the Indian regulator, i.e. the Bar Council of India would be well advised to adopt versions of the American Bar Association Model Rules which require lawyers to be aware of the risks and advantages of technology for the provision of legal services, and supervise non-lawyers’ assistance. Lastly, this paper also suggests that the light-touch approach adopted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority of England can serve as the model regulatory approach to be adopted by the Bar Council of India.