According to him, many countries have accumulated layers of complex, conflicting laws over time that legal professionals often shape through patchwork amendments.
Due to this, the current legal systems have become “gigantic, patched, added, and often intentionally made complex.”
Zhao pointed out that this has made it nearly impossible for non-lawyers to fully comprehend their rights and obligations.
However, he believes that this could change with the advent of LLMs.
As a result, these AIs could detect inconsistencies, streamline clauses, and interpret technical language, which could help make the law more accessible to everyday users.
Instead, he positioned these technologies as assistants that could handle routine tasks while freeing up legal professionals to focus on more complex, high-stakes work.
According to him:
“There could be a 1000 companies building spaceships vs only a couple now. We can test more drugs to cure cancer. Flying cars… All of them need tremendous amounts of legal work.”
Meanwhile, market observers cautioned that while LLMs offer tremendous utility, they have flaws.
Current iterations still face challenges such as hallucinations or situations when the AI generates incorrect or misleading information. They argued that this reinforces the continued need for legal professionals who can interpret, verify, and contextualize the law.
