Tonight, Watson the computer faces off against Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings in the final round of the ultimate Jeopardy! challenge. Jennings and Rutter have their work cut out for them; after Rutter tied with the machine in round one on Monday, both humans were totally trounced by Watson last night.
So, if a computer can best two über-nerds on Jeopardy!, what does that mean for the rest of us mere mortals? Could a computer, say, out-lawyer a lawyer? The Atlantic asks that very question via a post on its website from earlier this week by technology writer Martin Ford. What it comes down to, Ford writes, is that jobs that are vulnerable to offshoring may also be prime candidates for automation — and that includes legal careers that deal primarily in research, contracts and other outside-the-courtroom elements of law:
One of the primary research areas in artificial intelligence has focused on creating “smart” algorithms that can quickly search, evaluate and summarize information…. We can expect that such smart algorithms will increasingly be used in the field of legal research. The software may start out as a productivity tool to make the lawyer’s job easier, and then eventually evolve into a full automation solution.
Read the full article here.
Photo by Travis Isaacs