On 29 April 2021, Professor Joshua Blank delivered a lecture discussing his article on Automated Legal Guidance in Cornell Law Review, co-written with Leigh Osofsky.
Through virtual assistants and other online tools, governments increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to help the public understand and apply the law. The Internal Revenue Service, for example, encourages taxpayers to use its online Interactive Tax Assistant for information regarding various tax credits and deductions. The IRS can thus provide advice to the public at a fraction of the cost of employing human beings to perform these tasks.
The article offers three recommendations to policymakers. First, it argues that governments should prevent automated legal guidance from widening the gap in access to legal advice between high-income and low-income individuals. Second, it argues that governments should introduce more robust oversight and review processes for automated legal guidance. Finally, it argues that governments should allow individuals to avoid certain penalties and sanctions where they have taken actions or legal positions in reliance upon automated legal guidance. Otherwise, the costs of these systems may soon come to outweigh their benefits.
Watch his full lecture on YouTube.