The robot rebellion got a step closer this week as a US court cited a web-based artificial intelligence system for practising law without a license.
The website provided legal advice based on an expert system – a database of knowledge that is often structured by the links and associations made by human experts in the field.
Someone obviously took exception to a programme providing legal advice and the issue ended up in litigation.
The Wired Blog reported on the curious case and linked to the pdf of the court ruling that stated:
[The] system touted its offering of legal advice and projected an aura of expertise concerning bankruptcy petitions; and, in that context, it offered personalized — albeit automated — counsel. … We find that because this was the conduct of a non-attorney, it constituted the unauthorized practice of law.
I’ll be looking out for more signs that Skynet is becoming self-aware and will be heading for the bunkers at the earliest sign of impending nuclear war.
Link to Wired Blog on ‘AI Cited for Unlicensed Practice of Law’.
Mind Hacks 
This is CENSORSHIP. The First Amendment I think covers this. What in essence is the difference between a database and a straight book on law?