GPT-4 AI can pass the lawyer exam
The US Multistate Bar Examination entitles you as a lawyer to practice anywhere in the US. GPT 3.5, the basis for ChatGPT, just fell short. But GPT-4, the much smarter successor, can probably pass this exam, say AI experts. Will you never have an expensive lawyer again?
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What exactly is the Multistate Bar Examination?
The MBE tests a candidate’s knowledge of the law and how well they can read and understand legal texts. Will an American pass this test, and some others? Then he may be registered as a lawyer in the United States. During the test, this candidate must answer 200 multiple choice questions. Preparing for this exam takes weeks to months. One in five candidates fail.
Nearly graduated, without seven years of law school
GPT-3.5, the model underlying Chat-GPT, was presented with the same test. On average, GPT 3.5 scored 17% worse than human participants. The AI only scored a pass on two components. Not spectacularly good, but still impressive when you consider that human participants in the test have completed seven years of law school for this, and GPT-3.5 is just the well-known training set, with which ChatGPT also answers our questions.
In some areas, such as civil law and burden of proof, the AI scored better and also passed the test. While in the field of criminal law and procedures, the AI did worse. Yet these results are spectacularly better than the researchers had expected.
GPT-4 will probably surpass this
OpenAI, the makers of GPT-3, GPT-3.5 and ChatGPT, are currently working on the successor, GPT-4. GPT-4 gets a lot more training data than GPT-3. The researchers have already done some tests with a preview of GPT-4. On this basis, they think that artificial intelligence can take and pass the lawyer’s exam within 18 months. This is of course guess work, but the development is going fast.
Finally honest lawyers and affordable legal aid for everyone?
This expectation is far from unrealistic. Lawyers are very expensive and they often deliver shoddy work. In any case, this will greatly improve the quality of their work, because they can outsource a lot of work to the more advanced version of ChatGPT. Even a layman can estimate in this way how promising his or her case is, which can save quite a lot of lawyer costs. Because unlike a lawyer, an AI has no interests. Unless, the interests of the creators are programmed into it.
It will be even more fun if artificial intelligence also scrutinizes judgments and supports judges. Court files are huge, often thousands of pages. This is very difficult for humans to process. It is no coincidence that judges are increasingly overburdened these days. If legislators can resist the temptation to introduce difficult, complex laws now that there is smart AI, we can clear the backlog.
You could also prevent innocent people from being convicted with the help of this AI. Or that cunning criminals avoid punishment.
This AI also makes it a lot more difficult for corrupt people to secretly do their thing. In this case, AI can sometimes turn out very well.
