Report: robots could eliminate need for most lawyers

A new report looks at the state of the legal profession in 2030, and it doesn't look too pretty as far as employment is concerned, io9 reports.
"It is no longer unrealistic to consider that workplace robots and their AI processing systems could reach the point of general production by 2030," the report, by Jomati Consultants, says.

 

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And those robots could eventually "do the work of a dozen low-level associates. They would not get tired. They would not seek advancement (or) pay rises." A firm's upper echelons would still be populated by actual human lawyers, but the need for associates would shrink dramatically.
As such, legal firms could see a "structural collapse," Legal Futures reports. Those in the top rungs of firms would offer "real understanding and human insight" to clients, the report says, and it suggests that because the top partners of 2030 are currently in their 30s, they're likely to push the AI business model.
All these changes will apply most to "very large, high-value commercial firms," whereas smaller, specialist firms might see less of an impact, the report finds. Artificial intelligence has already had a big effect on law firms, as the New York Times reported in 2011.
It juxtaposed two cases: a 1978 case that required $2.2 million worth of work by lawyers and paralegals who sorted through 6 million documents, compared to a 2011 case in which software was able to pore over 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.
(When it comes to AI, we may have a lot more than job loss to be worried about, says Stephen Hawking.)
This article originally appeared on Newser: Report: Robots Could Make Most Lawyers Obsolete

North Korea praises hack attack against Sony Pictures

North Korea called a wide-ranging cyberattack against Sony Pictures a "righteous deed" in a statement released Sunday, but stopped short of taking full responsibility for last week's disruption. 

An unidentified spokesman for the North's powerful National Defense Commission said that the hack that it "might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers" of the North's call for the world to turn out in a "just struggle" against U.S. imperialism.

 

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The destructive Nov. 24 attack was carried out by a group calling itself the "Guardians of Peace". It targeted Sony's corporate network and vowed to release sensitive corporate data if certain demands were not met. Reuters reported Saturday that forensic investigators called in by Sony to investigate the hack described it as "an unparalleled and well planned crime, carried out by an organized group, for which neither [Sony Pictures] nor other companies could have been fully prepared."

Variety reports that screener copies of at least five Sony movies were downloaded freely online following the hack. A spreadsheet also appeared on a text sharing site Monday purportedly showing the salaries of top Sony Pictures executives.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that hackers have nabbed more than 47,000 Social Security Numbers from current and former employees, as well as celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone and director Judd Apatow. Late Friday, the FBI told FoxNews.com that it was investigating threatening emails received by some Sony Pictures employees. 

"We do not know where in America the Sony Pictures is situated and for what wrongdoings it became the target of the attack, nor (do) we feel the need to know about it," the statement carried in state media said. "But what we clearly know is that the Sony Pictures is the very one which was going to produce a film abetting a terrorist act while hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of" North Korea.

The movie in question, "The Interview," features comic actors Seth Rogen and James Franco as television journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong-un using an interview as their cover.

Pyongyang has repeatedly complained about "The Interview," at one point writing a letter of complaint to President Barack Obama about the film. North Korea has built a cult of personality around the Kim family, which has ruled for three generations, and sees any outside criticism or mockery of its leader as an attack on its sovereignty. It recently opened fire on anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons that North Korean defectors in the South were floating across the border into the North.

The statement said the North's enemies, the United States and South Korea, had "groundlessly linked the hacking attack with" Pyongyang, but the denial also included a threat.

The United States should know that "there are a great number of supporters and sympathizers with (North Korea) all over the world as well as the 'champions of peace' who attacked the Sony Pictures," the statement said. "The righteous reaction will get stronger to smash the evil doings."

Some cybersecurity experts say they've found striking similarities between the code used in the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment and attacks blamed on North Korea that targeted South Korean companies and government agencies last year.

Experts are divided, however, over the likelihood that North Korea or independent hackers were involved.

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China surpasses U.S. to become largest world economy

For the first time in decades, the U.S. is no longer the largest economy in the world, and China has become number one, the International Monetary Fund says.

The IMF recently released the latest numbers for the world economy, stating that China will produce $17.6 trillion in terms of goods and services--  compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.

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Just 14 years ago, the U.S. produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese, Dow Jones’ MarketWatch reported.

But each country reports its data in its own currency, according to the IMF website. In order to compare data, each country's statistics must be converted into a common currency. But there are several ways to manage that conversion and each can result in very different answers. 

Another measure of an economy’s strength is its “purchasing power parity” or PPP—the rate at which the currency of one country would have to be converted into that of another country to buy the same amount of goods and services in each country.

China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real PPP terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S.

Prices aren't the same in each country, Business Insider suggests. The same shirt will cost you less in Shanghai than in San Francisco, so comparing countries without taking these factors into account is not always reliable.

Though the average Chinese citizen earns a lot less than the average American, simply converting a Chinese salary into dollars underestimates how much purchasing power that person, and therefore that country, might have.

So the IMF measures both GDP in market-exchange terms, and PPP terms. On the purchasing-power basis, China is overtaking the U.S. right now and becoming the world's biggest economy.

MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends suggests that if you just look at international exchange rates, the U.S economy is still larger than China’s allegedly by almost 70 percent. But, Arends adds, although these measures are commonly cited, they can also be unreliable.

Experts have predicted China’s economy would surpass America’s for years and recent conventional wisdom anticipated the change this year.

China’s economy may now be the world’s largest, but it’s still not the richest. GDP per head is still less than a quarter of U.S. levels, the Financial Times reported.

American hostage murdered during failed rescue attempt in Yemen

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Hagel said in the statement that the rescue bid was conducted in partnership with the Yemen's government and its security forces.Ten militants were killed between the rescue attempt and the drone strike prior to the mission, the Yemeni official confirmed.

South African hostage Pierre Korkie was the other hostage killed in the operation, the Gift of the Givers, a South African aid group confirmed.

President Obama, who ordered the mission, released a statement early Saturday morning condemning the "barbaric murder" of Somers.

Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told The Associated Press that she and her father learned of her 33-year-old brother's death from FBI agents at 12 a.m. ET Saturday.

"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," Lucy Somers said from London.

Yemen's national security chief, Maj. Gen. Ali al-Ahmadi, said the militants planned to kill Luke Somers on Saturday.

"Al Qaeda promised to conduct the execution (of Somers) today so there was an attempt to save them but unfortunately they shot the hostage before or during the attack," al-Ahmadi said at a conference in Manama, Bahrain. "He was freed but unfortunately he was dead."

Yemen's local Al Qaeda branch, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, posted a video Thursday that showed Somers, threatening to kill him in three days if the United States didn't meet the group's demands, which weren't specified. He was kidnapped in September 2013 from Sanaa.

The news of the failed rescue comes after a suspected U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed nine alleged Al Qaeda militants early Saturday, a Yemeni security official said before news of Somers' death. The drone struck at dawn in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, hitting a suspected militant hideout, the official said. The official did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to brief journalists.

Later Saturday, tribal leaders said they saw helicopters flying over an area called Wadi Abdan in Shabwa province.

American authorities rarely discuss their drone strike campaign in Yemen. The strikes are despised by many in Yemen due to civilian casualties, legitimizing for many the attacks on American interests. At least six suspected militants were killed in an airstrike in the same province last month.

Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live."

In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release.

Korkie was kidnapped in the Yemeni city of Taiz in May 2013, along with his wife Yolande. His wife later was released returned to South Africa. A non-governmental group, Gift of the Givers, helped mediate her release. Those close to Korkie said al-Qaida militants demanded a $3 million ransom for his release.

"The psychological and emotional devastation to Yolande and her family will be compounded by the knowledge that Pierre was to be released by Al Qaeda tomorrow," Gift of Givers said in a statement Saturday. "A team of Abyan leaders met in Aden this morning and were preparing the final security and logistical arrangements, related to hostage release mechanisms, to bring Pierre to safety and freedom. It is even more tragic that the words we used in a conversation with Yolande at 5.59 this morning was `The wait is almost over."'

In a statement Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby acknowledged for the first time that a mysterious U.S. raid last month had sought to rescue Somers but that he turned out not to be at the site. The U.S. considers Yemen's Al Qaeda branch to be the world's most dangerous arm of the group as it has been linked to several failed attacks on the U.S. homeland.

Kirby did not elaborate on the joint U.S-Yemeni operation to free Somers, saying details remained classified.

However, officials have said the raid targeted a remote Al Qaeda safe haven in a desert region near the Saudi border. Eight captives -- including Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian -- were freed. Somers, a Briton and four others had been moved days earlier.

Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a supermarket in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said Fakhri al-Arashi, chief editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and a freelance photographer during the 2011 uprising in Yemen.

Somers, who was born in Britain, earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing while attending Beloit College in Wisconsin from 2004 through 2007.

"He really wanted to understand the world," said Shawn Gillen, an English professor and chairman of Beloit College's journalism program who had Gillen as a student.