The AAAi Podcast Professor Richard Susskind
Jun 5, 2025
Richard Susskind, an Oxford-based author and consultant on the intersection of law and technology, shares his insights on how AI will reshape the legal landscape. He discusses the urgent need for the legal profession to adapt, prioritizing access to justice over conventional practices. Susskind explores how generative AI, like ChatGPT, has accelerated his vision for legal tech and emphasizes the importance of training law students for an AI-driven future. He considers whether lawyers should compete with AI or collaborate with it to enhance legal delivery.
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Focus On Impact Not Technicalities
- Richard Susskind wrote How To Think About AI for a general audience to focus on social, ethical, legal, and economic impacts rather than technical detail.
- He urges public debate about AI's societal impact, not just technologists' perspectives.
From Rule Trees To Generative AI
- Susskind described his early work building one of the first commercial rule-based AI systems for lawyers with over two million paths.
- He contrasts that 1980s system with the surprising power and flexibility of modern generative AI like ChatGPT.
Avoid Technological Myopia
- Short-term critics focus on hallucinations and faults, which Susskind calls technological myopia.
- He argues systems will improve and that strategy must anticipate reliable future performance.
