Artificial Intelligence does not proffer Implied Authority

An expert system designed for facilitating U.S. bankruptcy filings has been shut down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for "practicing law without a license." The Ziinet Bankruptcy Engine was

an expert system and knows the law. Unlike most bankruptcy programs which are little more than customized word processors the Ziinet engine is an expert system. It knows bankruptcy laws right down to those applicable to the state in which you live. Now you no longer need to spend weeks studying bankruptcy laws.

They wouldn't be smiling if they were aware that Robojudge TL-03 (not pictured) had just upheld the Zeroth Circuit Court's injunction and quashed their motion to suppress evidence of injurious prior restraint.

Jayson Reynoso paid $219 for 60 days of access. I'm wondering how many others paid Frankfort Digital Services, Ltd. and Henry Ihejirika, the entrepreneur who started it. Assuming some serious cash was able to be raked in on this bit of brilliance, I could see how robo-lawyers, begotten from AI, begotten from expert legal systems might eventually emerge. It might happen a little sooner if Ihejirika had combined some evolutionary principles so that his system could've passed the bar. The little snake-bot mentioned in that link has more of a "spine" than many lawyers I've dealt with.

Of course, we'd see a Lawyering Luddite revolt where the overstuffed shirt meatbags will try and save their $500-an-hour jobs. After the robots overtake the judicial system people will suddenly be under the control of a legal and political system run by robots without any recourse. We're already militarizing robots, so it won't be too much of a leap for the nuveau Robopolitalegal establishment to just turn those against humanity as well!



Thanks to Wired 27bstroke6 Blog and Newsvine