THIS ROBOT ISN’T AS COOL AS IT SOUNDS, BUT IT IS HELPFUL

Those headlines about a robotic lawyer are misleading.  You won’t be talking to a robot when you call my office, at least not anytime soon.  What the story behind the headlines is actually about is essentially a refinement of existing computerized legal research technology.   That technology makes it possible to locate cases dealing with a particular topic by searching for specified words and phrases in the text of the cases.  It’s a technology that has been around as long as I have been a lawyer, although it has improved dramatically since it was first introduced.  
Via Instapundit.