South Korean law firm DR & AJU Law Group has launched a legal chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, called AI DR & AJU, which it says is the first of its kind in the country.
Created through a collaborative effort between the firm and technology companies Nexus AI and Naver Cloud, the chatbot has its own subdomain page open to the public, where any person can input legal queries. AI DR &AJU is only available in Korean.
The three companies also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to ensure long-term collaboration and continuous improvement of the AI DR & AJU service.
“Numerous lawyers from DR & AJU participated in training and verifying basic legal consultation sample data by field, and Nexus AI fine-tuned the chatbot based on the sample data and verification data,” said Kyu Chul Lee, DR & AJU’s managing partner, in a statement.
“Since users do not need to meet with a lawyer in person, it makes it easier for them to seek advice on issues they might consider trivial or embarrassing. AI DR & AJU provides legal information in all areas of civil, criminal, family, and administrative law,” Lee added.
South Korea’s legal tech market has been growing fast in the last couple of years, powered by the coming of generative AI and large-language models like ChatGPT.
In May 2023, online legal service platform Law&Good unveiled Law&Bot, a free service that utilizes AI to interpret complex legal terms in an easily understandable manner and provide answers to litigation-related questions. Currently, its scope is only limited to divorce lawsuits, with plans to expand to other areas in the future.
An AI service for lawyers, tentatively known as Super Lawyer, has been created by Law & Company, which runs an AI-based legal data platform, Bigcase, and local AI startup, Upstage.
And this year, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office is also set to introduce as AI platform for prosecutors and investigators to search databases for cases more easily.
The Supreme Court also recently invited tenders for the development of AI that can assist trials, with the aim of preventing delay of trials by easing the burden on judges.