Gimmick or the beginning of the end of the legal industry as we know it? Only time will tell...

From the ABA Journal, "Meet ROSS, ‘the world’s first artificially intelligent attorney’":

A legal research database utilizing IBM’s Watson computer has won backing from a Silicon Valley company that helps fund and nurture startups.

Students at the University of Toronto developed the legal research database called ROSS, which took second place in an IBM cognitive computing competition, according to this press release. Now ROSS is the genesis for a startup that has won backing from the Y Combinator, Legaltech News reports.

Watson, which competed as a Jeopardy contestant in 2011, understands questions it is asked, and learns and gets better with practice. ROSS co-founder Andrew Arruda says ROSS has similar capabilities.

ROSS is “the world’s first artificially intelligent attorney,” Arruda told Legaltech News. “ROSS is trained to read the law, understand the type of questions that lawyers might ask one another, and get smarter the more lawyers use it.”

Hat tip: Scott Swenson