As the prime week of spooky season is upon us, the hottest new AI technology is knocking on our door: AI agents.
Everywhere you turned this week, in both legal tech and big tech, agents were there, lurking in the shadows. Just as the veil between the living and the dead is supposedly thinner in late October, the same is proving to be true for the veil between chatbots and agents.
The week’s announcements ran the agentic gamut, as some agents came to life, while others are still inventions in the minds of their creators. Either way, though, it’s clear that agentic AI is the latest thing to capture the industry’s attention, even if it has yet to agree on what truly constitutes an agent.
To be clear, agents did not just appear out of the ether this week. The original paper that caused a stir over generative agents was released in April 2023, and work on them has been ongoing ever since, including in legal tech. However, in the past week, the agentic buzz reached new heights.
First, the big AI developers came out to play. Anthropic announced a new capability in beta called computer use, which allows the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model to control a user’s machine to complete tasks. Not to be outdone, Google announced similar capabilities under a new product code-named Project Jarvis (after all, what’s Halloween without some Marvel costumes in the mix?). Much of the coverage of these announcements seemed to overlook the fact that OpenAI announced it was developing agents that could take over computers back in February.
On the legal tech front, Luminance launched ‘Agent Lumi,’ taking its legal AI “from thought to action.” Meanwhile, London-based startup Genie AI raised $17.8 million in Series A funding, with the specific intent of building agentic legal AI. Finally, in a legal-adjacent move, Thomson Reuters acquired Materia, “a specialist in agentic AI for the tax, audit and accounting profession.” While the announcement did not mention TR’s legal products, it seems to parallel the company’s April expansion of its CoCounsel product beyond legal, to all the business lines it serves.
So, what does this all portend for legal? Looking deep into my crystal ball, I predict that the flow of agent announcements is just getting started. Before the cauldron starts to boil over, the witching hour for educating ourselves to discern agentic hype from reality is nigh.
What I’m Watching:
Treat alert: Legal tech pioneer Richard Susskind is releasing a new book in March 2025 entitled, “HOW TO THINK ABOUT AI: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED.” The new release marks the first time Susskind is writing for a broader audience beyond legal professionals, to “have a go at demystifying AI by explaining what AI systems do rather than how they do it, and at addressing some of the big issues – the business, risk, legal, ethical, management, and philosophical implications.”
Trick alert: Are startups the right fit for Biglaw attorneys? Rather than company speculation, that’s perhaps the right question to be asking after reports of two departures from Harvey for elite law firms in recent weeks. My personal answer, based solidly on my legal training, is: It depends.
Descrybe.ai habla Español. Along with other significant enhancements, justice tech company descrybe.ai, the provider of a free case law research platform, announced that it’s now providing judicial opinion summaries in both English and Spanish, with simplified versions in both languages. The company also announced that its next release will include judicial opinions from the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
UK-headquartered law firm Travers Smith launched an internal Artificial Intelligence (AI) Academy, spearheaded by the firm’s Head of Knowledge Management Emily Tearle. The program will feature four modules: “Get Set (foundational resources), Ignite (core mandatory training required for all), Accelerate (further training, both on prompting and the legal and regulatory implications) and Boost (an ongoing module as AI continues to develop).”
Harbor has acquired Ascertus, a UK-based legal technology services provider specializing in document and content management solutions. Ascertus supports both corporate legal departments and law firms and is an implementation partner for iManage.
AI and robotics have combined to create art. Renowned auction house Sotheby’s announced plans for its first-ever sale of artwork created by a humanoid artist – a painting entitled “A.I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing (2024),” painted by humanoid robot Ai-Da. It’s expected to fetch between $120,000 and $180,000 in a digital sale to take place on Halloween.
Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment of my weekly Tuesday column on recent developments in legal tech and AI that have caught my attention. You can find the previous column here. If you have news or stories that you’d like to see featured in a future column, please contact me at stephanie@legaltechnologyhub.com.
