Anyone seen the Boston Dynamics suite of robots? Amazing or terrifying depending on your view. As usual, it’s worth seeking out the comments on YouTube. Here are some:

• “Did someone let Tony Hawk know he’s being replaced by a Terminator?”
• “Should’ve been ‘Introducing Michael Jackson Bot'”
• “Welcome to the Future”

There are plenty who believe the law is rife for an update too. We’re not quite at the robot lawyer stage yet. Handle may be a whizz on the dance floor – in fact, any floor – but it won’t help you through the legal process to sell your house more efficiently. Its counterpart, SpotMini, is impressive in its ability at opening doors but won’t sue if the building was poorly constructed. Nor do Boston Dynamics have an automated cloud contract writing division to help you manage your risks when moving functions to the cloud. Not yet anyway.

This weekend, the Global Legal Hackathon takes place and it’s coming to London. It’s one purpose is “Rapid development of solutions for improving the legal industry world-wide.” It starts today Friday 23rd and closes on Sunday 25th. I will be one of the judges and I look forward to reviewing what some amazingly talented people have put together in a short time!

For those who are annoyed that the development of law or at least the delivery of law doesn’t keep up with the frenetic pace of technology, this is your chance to make a difference. Come along. Watch. Take part. Develop.

UPDATE 25/2/18: See more info and the winner here.