To put artificial intelligence (AI) into much-needed perspective, the infamous archetypal AI computer, HAL 9000, was depicted in "2001: A Space Odyssey." The titular year of that film was almost a quarter-century ago. Though the movie was released in 1968, the premise was loosely based upon an Arthur C. Clarke short story from 1951 (it also bears mentioning that most of the film took place on a manned space mission to Jupiter). Suffice to say that the projected progress and reach of AI has been, at times, overly optimistic.

Notwithstanding, upon peeling back the ongoing flavor of the month fervor over AI, there remains a multifaceted tool particularly applicable to products liability mass and class actions. AI is perhaps as groundbreaking as the introduction of what was originally referred to as the World Wide Web—which, despite the best efforts of various websites purporting to empower any subscriber to draft complex contracts and estate documents, still does not appear to be in danger of rendering human attorneys obsolete any time in the foreseeable future. With that caveat, there is enormous potential in the development and use of AI in products liability mass and class actions, not yet as a replacement for human attorneys, but as a powerful force multiplier.