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Lawyers have to maintain and recall vast amounts of information in the form of legislation, case law and secondary cases, and they spend up to a fifth of their time on legal research. But an AI app called Ross Intelligence could soon help with that. The program, which is built on IBM’s super-computer Watson, uses natural language processing to answer legal questions in a fraction of the time that it would take a legal assistant.

To begin, legal professionals can ask Ross a question as they would ask a colleague. Then the program reads through the entire body of law and returns a cited answer as well topical readings. Ross also monitors the law constantly to keep the user updated about changes that might affect their case, so they don’t need to sift through the mass of legal news.

Ross is already being used by law firm Baker and Hostetler, who will be applying it to their bankruptcy practice. Could a similar program be created for the medical profession?