My summary of Harvey before using it — Artificial Intelligence replacing or supporting lawyers.
How does Harvey explain itself in the first minute? “Unprecedented legal AI” is the main headline on the Harvey website, followed by a call to action to join the waiting list.
On the Harvey blog, there’s a post announcing Harvey’s recent $21M Series A led by Sequoia with participation from the OpenAI Startup Fund, Conviction, SV Angel and Elad Gil.
“At Harvey, we believe that the future of AI will not be a chatbot that compliments your workflow; it will be the platform your workflow is built on.” Harvey’s vision thus becomes apparent: providing a scalable AI-based platform for professional service firms to build there workflows on. Instead of making lawyers redundant, Harvey enables lawyers to “focus on the quintessential aspects of their professions — strategy, advice, and judgment.”
How does Harvey work? Harvey is using ChatGpT to assist with contract research and writing, generate legal insights and provide recommendations. Building on ChatGpT’s general internet data (dating back to 2021), Harvey was further trained on general legal data such as case law and reference materials.
Harvey won’t replace the legal professional (yet). In the press release about the partnership between global law firm A&O and Harvey, it’s made clear that Harvey’s output still requires “careful review by an A&O lawyer.” The goal is for Harvey to make lawyers more efficient, letting them focus on the high value aspects of their job.
Harvey feels similar to AI companies like Casetext CoCounsel, Ironclad and Luminance, assisting with common legal tasks and analysis, predominantly in the contractual space. Harvey and its competitors focus on things like automating contract reviews, analysing documents and translating contractual terms into business speak.
Main learning point: At present, what will ChatGpT be able to do for lawyers and their clients? What won’t it be able to do? ChatGpT is already known for its ability to help developers write code, how reliable will it prove to be in helping legal professionals with the more routine aspects of their job?
Related links for further learning:
- https://www.allenovery.com/en-gb/global/news-and-insights/news/ao-announces-exclusive-launch-partnership-with-harvey
- https://www.clio.com/blog/chat-gpt-prompts/
- https://www.clio.com/blog/harvey-ai-legal/
- https://www.legaldive.com/news/pwc-generative-ai-harvey-openai-legal-work-large-language-models/648569/
- https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/23/harvey-which-uses-ai-to-answer-legal-questions-lands-cash-from-openai/
- https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/how-ai-enabled-tech-can-ease-the-headache-of-contract-review/
- https://casetext.com/
- https://www.luminance.com/
- https://ironcladapp.com/lp/ironclad-contract-management-software/
