AI & Law: Chess-Like State-Space Complexity

Practice of law as viewed via chess playing and AI

by Dr. Lance B. Eliot

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Key briefing points about this article:

• Some liken the practice of law to the playing of chess
• Lawyers need to conceive of their legal moves and countermoves related to opposing counsel
• AI chess-playing systems have gotten quite good and there are lessons to be learned therein
• It is handy to consider the state-space complexity in the construct of legal argumentation
• Predictions are that the use of AI legal reasoning will ultimately be integral to legal arguments

Introduction

The odds are pretty high that you know the name Bobby Fischer, considered one of the greatest chess players ever.

Anyone with small children that play chess is apt to have told their offspring that someday they might be as good at chess as Bobby was. It seems that every time a youngster even appears to play chess well, adults begin to refer to the child as yet another Bobby Fischer.