UK property technology firm Search Acumen announces today (8 March) that it has begun beta testing ChatGPT. OpenAI’s chatbot will be integrated within Search Acumen’s portal for lawyers, available to a select few firms.
Search Acumen says that ChatGPT has already been trained to use vast volumes of its land and property data, which spans over 500 data layers, and is poised to answer both a selection of pre-formed questions as well as bespoke complex and varied conveyancer queries.
While ChatGPT has the potential to help make the conveyancing process more efficient, it is not clear from the announcement how Search Acumen will protect against potential inaccuracies, given that in recent research by Midland conveyancing firm Bird & Co, ChatGPT provided information that was out of date or wrong.
It is quite unusual for companies to announce beta tests and speaks to the huge interest in ChatGPT since its launch at the end of last year.
Andrew Lloyd, managing director at Search Acumen, comments: “The integration of ChatGPT opens a gateway to further modernisation and technological advancement. It’s time saving abilities for crunching data and reports in an instant should not be underestimated by lawyers. We are encouraging firms to get in touch if they would like to be involved in beta testing at this stage, ensuring conveyancers stay at the heart of what we do.
“While we note the transformative potential of the chatbot and its invaluable use in automating tasks that do not require the application of nuance, it is those higher-value tasks which require human expertise that cannot be replicated by a machine. It’s unlikely 20 years of sector knowledge, nor the ability to negotiate, will ever be truly replicated. It will be businesses that embrace technology and use it to meet consumer expectations that will prosper over others. For this reason, we truly believe ChatGPT is an excellent complement to conveyancers, who will always be central to our vision for innovation.”
caroline@legaltechnology.com