I recall sitting at my desk in 1993, mesmerized when my law partner opened the first ever internet site on my office computer. I liken it to the exhilaration I felt when, as a child in elementary school, my mother purchased our first set of World Book encyclopedias. It was a life-changing moment that revolutionized my perspective on the world, and opened vast opportunities to more effectively represent clients. At that time, heavy desktop computers facing a bulky CRT monitor connected to the internet through dedicated, noisy telephone lines using dial-up modems. Loading a single image took sometimes several minutes.
By 1995, more than 24 million people in the U.S. and Canada alone spent an average of 5 hours per week on the internet. Today, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population uses the web to visit millions of active websites. We do so on palm-sized devices that can receive and transmit data at speeds vastly superior to the clunky computers of the 1990s.
With the recent introduction of AI, we have now turned a new page. Artificial intelligence (AI) is technology that enables computers, connected to vast data centers, to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy. Generative AI can create original text, images, video and other content. Applications and devices equipped with AI can act independently, replacing oftentimes any need for human intelligence or intervention. A classic example is the number of self-driving cars on the road today.
Glance at the headlines in any news source today and you may be surprised to see the number of articles with subtitles that contain the letters “AI”. It is, by all accounts, one of the most fiercely debated topics in world news today. Why is the AI race so important? AI is expected drive trillions in economic value by reshaping industries and automating work flow. It has already accelerated drug discovery, medical breakthroughs and scientific research. National security is also a vital concern, and AI stands to revamp much of what we understand today about military capability. The “race” to dominate this technology is critical to assure that countries around the world do not become dependent on China for their productivity.
Our country’s political leaders are divided over the level of threat posed by the uncontrolled expansion of AI, and some have called for a “pause” on this technology. Meanwhile, many of their constituents are raising concerns over the proliferation of data centers in their backyards. Some within the tech community have gone so far as to make alarming predictions about the probability of human annihilation.
From a legal standpoint, the benefits and risks posed by AI can no longer be ignored. Rarely does a day go by that a client doesn’t email me with a “solution” they have found to their legal problem based on an AI-generated analysis of their case. Often, these are over-simplified and fail to account for the nuances of Tennessee law or the unique facts of their case. Lawyers who are lazy allow AI to write their legal briefs, only to find that many of the cases cited as authority do not exist. At the same time, AI can be a very valuable tool for drafting routine legal documents, and for streamlining legal research.
There is a debate among some biblical scholars today whether the rise of AI could be understood as a fulfillment of an ancient prophesy in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 12:4, God revealed that there would come a time in the last days when “knowledge will increase”. A compelling argument could be made that the rise in AI is yet another sign of the end times. But perhaps the greatest risk posed by this powerful technology is more metaphysical in nature – the risk that some will see worship of the knowledge-giver as an anachronism.
—Larry L. Crain, Crain Law Group, PLLC
