As large language models enter China’s legal profession, which lawyers will lose out?

A major legal database affiliated with Peking University has launched a large language model tool it says can accurately retrieve statutes and automatically generate contracts, sending ripples through the legal profession in China. AI-powered legal tools can draft convincing documents in seconds, yet without rigorous oversight they are equally adept at inventing statutes and fabricating precedents – a liability that has kept them on the sidelines in medicine and law.

However, lawyers cannot...