“Desk Set” (the movie) and the 2016 Robot Lawyers

If you’re not tracking news of Robot Lawyers then you’re not keeping up with the legal research profession.

No, not a “robotic” lawyer, but the Artificial Intelligence (AI) kind. See lots of robot, and AI related, lawyer news at LawSites and 3 Geeks and a Law Blog.

These developments are neither good nor bad. It’s a process and you have time to think, explore, experiment, and eventually panic, as humans always do. (Look at Wall Street traders. They panic sooner and more than almost anybody, although, admittedly, many of them are ruled by robots and robotic mentors.)

Remember EMMARAC and the librarians in the movie Desk Set? (IMDB, movie transcript, other movie scripts/screenplays)? (And you can’t call yourself a Librarian, with a capital L, if you haven’t seen Desk Set.)

“It [EMMARAC] was never intended to take over.
– It was never intended to replace you.
– It’s here to free your time for research.
– It’s here to help you.
– Why didn’t you say so?
– Because of your darn grapevine….” (Script-o-rama transcript)