Artificial intelligence will reshape the business model: Vikram Shroff

Vikram Shroff

It's the era of man versus machine. And, we lawyers are equally at risk. Technology was always disruptive - however, the pace at which artificial intelligence (AI) is developing has caught most unaware. To illustrate:IBM's ROSS, which gets smarter with time as it "learns" from user history, can research 200 million pages of simple text in a second. Symantec's Clearwell system can scan and summarise 500,000 documents in two days. LegalZoom and RocketLawyer allow people to create wills, incorporate businesses and register intellectual property rights.Over the last decade, automation has driven considerable change in the legal sector. Leading law firms and legal outsourcers are already using or testing AI for contract creation and management, discovery, knowledge management and compliance functions.AI will reshape the underlying business model of our profession. Several law firms have formed joint ventures or bought firms to use their technology. AI will eventually help create virtual law

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With reference to Dilasha Seth's report, "Ban cash transactions of above Rs 3 lakh to curb black money: SIT" (July 16) the suggestion, though feasible, is not realistic

Letters: Withdraw certain notes

Apropos the report, "Ban cash transactions of above Rs 3 lakh to curb black money: SIT" the Supreme Court-appointed special investigative team's recommendation aimed at curbing black money generation is a step in the right direction

Letters: Too accommodating?

As the Rajya Sabha prepares to meet on July 18, three members are expected to provide new zing to the proceedings. Amar Singh is the king of one-liners and has returned to the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party after a short interregnum. Ram Jethmalani has been nominated by the Rashtriya Janata Dal. And of course, the inimitable Subramanian Swamy is always there. The Upper House promises to be the most happening place in Parliament House in the next few weeks and months!

Rajya Sabha, the new happening place

It was Gen V K Singh, minister of state for external affairs, who had said that Akbar Road should be renamed as Maharana Pratap Road. The only problem is, Gen Singh now has right next to his room in the hallowed portals of South Block, a different Akbar, his colleague M J Akbar. Will Gen Singh insist that M J Akbar also change his name, to remove and forever eliminate the reminder of history that an emperor called Akbar once ruled India? And what should M J Akbar's new name be? Suggestions are welcome: Please write to Gen V K Singh, c/o South Block.

Akbar, in history and in the present

Pokemon GO will have far-reaching implications

Games people play

The headmaster of a school in Bardhaman district of West Bengal seems to have taken the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan too seriously

Swachh Bharat gone too far

The PCA ruling will test China's assurances of a 'peaceful rise'

Verdict at The Hague

M Saraswathy and Samie Modak's front-page lead report, "Suuti stake: LIC faces investment cap hurdle" (July 14) has once again raised my curiosity about the benefits of so-called "disinvestment" by the government.Previous governments had made big claims - preceded by huge targets -about the sale of their stake in various public sector undertakings (PSU) and other industrial undertakings. This was ostensibly done to achieve the bigger objective of poll promise and the grandiose slogan that the "government has no business to be in business" and money raised from such sales got added to the government's coffers, supposedly helping reduce fiscal deficit. This pet slogan started with the P V Narsimha Rao regime soon after the historic policy shift of 1991 and has continued ever since.But does it really achieve what it is supposed to?In most cases, a majority of the government stake was picked up by the cash-rich government undertaking called the LIC. It was really a case of transfer of mone

Letters: Are the benefits tangible?

Inflation target parameters need to be reviewed

Core issues

With reference to the editorial, "Restoring a government" (July 14), during the debate that took place in the Constituent Assembly on Article 356, B R Ambedkar, the then chairman of the Drafting Committee, did not altogether deny the possibility of the Article being abused or misused for political reasons. However, he was optimistic such a draconian provision would never be implemented and remain a dead letter.Unfortunately, soon after Independence, several states found themselves in the throes of an artificial constitutional crisis, with the Centre exercising its hegemony over democratically elected state governments.The Supreme Court, in its landmark Bommai judgement, observed unequivocally that Article 356 could be justified only when there is a breakdown of constitutional machinery and not administrative machinery. It, thus, stripped the proclamation issued under this Article of its immunity from judicial review and subsumed to itself the power to strike down the proclamation if it

Letters: Time to take a step back

Publicity during initial public offering and listing of shares is tightly regulated

Being social

To keep mid- to senior-level bureaucrats from leaving West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to send 20 senior civil servants to Oxford University for a crash course

Oxford and back to West Bengal

Supreme Court order puts state governors' role under scanner

Restoring a government

Too many flip-flops don't inspire confidence

Diageo's hangover

All of Modi's overseas trips has evoked a good response from the countries he visited

Letters: Why leave Swaraj out?

The ever-improving performance indices of private sector banks in the country bear signs of a maturing economy

Letters: Raised expectations

In neighbouring West Bengal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is said to be facing unprecedented internal conflict as members are challenging the party's stand on its alliance with the Congress before the Assembly elections in the state earlier this year

Comrades up in arms

It looks like the whole idea of prohibition and the way it is being implemented in Bihar are causing much grief and heartache within the ruling Grand Alliance in the state

Divided on prohibition

Don't grudge a dyed-in-the-wool politician his moment of creative licence

Piyush Goyal's creative licence

Click on graphic

The number of millionaires, or high net-worth individuals (HNWI), living in India is expected to jump by 135 per cent - from 236,000 in 2015 to 554,000 by 2025

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