At BYU Law’s Future of Law Forum, Sateesh Nori, a nationally recognized leader in legal innovation, explained how AI can improve access to justice. Among the factors contributing to the massive unmet need for legal help in America are geography (lawyers concentrate in large metropolitan areas, creating legal services deserts elsewhere), regulation (rules prohibiting the practice of law by non-lawyers), and complexity (laws are written by lawyers for lawyers). AI can help with the complexity challenge. Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) is an AI framework that enhances large language model outputs by retrieving relevant, up-to-date data from external, trusted sources (databases, documents) before generating a response. RAG can translate a complicated legal issue for a user’s specific reading and education level, and this gives more people access to guidance on legal rights and remedies. Nori observed that criticisms of AI hallucination are entirely correct in that the models are predictive, but RAG output is increasingly accurate. He urged students to embrace AI as a tool to empower productivity, not something to be afraid of. Nori insisted that the future belongs to lawyers who combine human judgment with the power of AI and he encouraged students to use AI to expand access to justice, declaring, “The law will not serve everyone until it belongs to everyone.”
