First robot lawyer ROSS hired

US-based law firm BakerHostetler in May 2016 hired the world’s first robot lawyer ROSS to assist the company and its various teams in legal research. The law firm will licence artificial lawyer ROSS for use in its Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights team. Key characteristics of ROSS • ROSS has been built by ROSS Intelligence and is built upon IBM cognitive computer Watson. • With the support of Watson’s, lawyers can ask ROSS their research question. • The ROSS reads through the law, gathers evidence, draws inferences and returns highly relevant, evidence-based answers. • ROSS also monitors the law around the clock to notify users of new court decisions that can affect a case. • The program continually learns from the lawyers who use it to bring back better results each time. Background ROSS Intelligence in 2014 began its research at the University of Toronto with the goal of building an artificial intelligence legal research assistant which would allow lawyers to enhance and scale their abilities. Just ten months after they began teaching ROSS bankruptcy law, the company is commercializing its first offering.