Photo/Illutration The logo of OpenAI is displayed near a response from its AI chatbot called ChatGPT on its website, in this picture taken on Feb. 9. (Reuters Photo)

Bengo4.com Inc. will launch a new website this spring to provide free legal advice using an artificial intelligence chatbot called ChatGPT, the company announced on Feb. 13.

Bengo4.com operates a website called “Minna no Horitsu Sodan” (Legal counseling for everyone) on which lawyers provide free legal advice.

For the new website, the company plans to feed the AI chatbot, developed by U.S. startup OpenAI, with data that it has accumulated through more than 1 million legal consultations. 

“We hope (the new website) will make legal consultations more familiar to people, change the current situation in which only some people consult lawyers and result in more work for lawyers,” said Taichiro Motoe, president of Bengo4.com.

ChatGPT learns from a vast amount of data using AI.

When a user types a question on ChatGPT, it responds in sentences humans could have written.

It has been drawing global attention since OpenAI released it in November.

Bengo4.com plans to launch the new website between April and June that will have ChatGPT automatically answer legal questions from users.

AI will be able to offer quicker advice compared to human lawyers.

However, as ChatGPT will give legal advice based on data from past legal consultations, there is concern that it might be unable to reflect new laws or recent court cases.

Worse, it could give the wrong advice.

Bengo4.com intends to offer legal advice for free on the new website, for the time being, as the Attorneys Law prohibits someone or an entity that is not a lawyer or legal professional corporation from handling legal services for the purpose of earning compensation.

Officials at Bengo4.com think ChatGPT offering legal advice could be regarded as handling legal services.

Motoe said the company will also continue operating the Minna no Horitsu Sodan website after launching the new site.

Related News