Electronic brain implants would allow lawyers to work more efficiently, scan material quickly and cut costs in the future according to a new report
A report from the Law Society claims that in the not so distant future, lawyers could bill their clients by ‘units of attention’ monitored by computers directly connected to their brains,
The reports suggests that lawyers who’ve had chips implanted in their brains could potentially scan documentation in a fraction of the time, reducing the need for large teams of legal researchers thereby cutting costs
Yahoo news reports: Supporters of neurotechnology for lawyers have argued that corporate clients will press for chips as an efficiency measure, as it would cut legal costs, as well as reduce the number of solicitors needed to work on complex cases.
The report, published last week, forecasted that brain implants could become the “iPhone of the future” in the legal profession.
Skyrocketing hourly billing rates for legal advice is a concern in the City, where a radical technological solution to reducing costs significantly would be an attractive option to chief executives and board directors, reported the Times.
The report, from Neurotechnology, Law and the Legal Profession, predicted: “Lawyers might try to gain an advantage over competitors and try to stay ahead of increasingly capable artificial intelligence systems by using neurotechnology to improve their workplace performance.”
Allan McCay, professor at the University of Sydney law school in Australia, who wrote the report, said: “One can imagine changes to billing that may be brought about by the attention-monitoring capacities of neurotechnologies.”
He added: “This might even prompt a move from billable hours to billable attention.”
He also pointed out that Elon Musk has been investigating neurotechnology for the past eight years: “This tech is coming, and we need to think about regulation. Action is needed now as there are significant neurotech investors such as Elon Musk and Meta (Facebook).
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