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Family lawyers have reported an emerging trend of people using artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to interpret their partners’ conversations, assess their relationships and explore the implications of divorce.
National Legal Service said the trend reflected a broader shift towards using AI during emotionally and legally significant periods of people’s lives, with some individuals consulting chatbots before seeking professional legal advice.
The firm cited research showing that Google searches for “best AI relationship advice” had increased by 558% over the previous year, while searches for “ChatGPT relationship advice” had risen by 396%.
Charles Metherell, a family and divorce lawyer at National Legal Service, said the firm was seeing increasing numbers of people approaching it after consulting AI models such as ChatGPT.
Some clients were seeking to initiate divorce proceedings, while others wanted to negotiate with their partners based on what AI tools had told them about their potential legal or financial entitlements.
People were also using chatbots to help decide whether to end a relationship, consider the financial and legal consequences of divorce, and rehearse difficult conversations before having them. Some were asking AI to interpret their partners’ interactions with chatbots to gain insight into their thoughts or intentions.
Metherell said AI could provide a useful starting point, but warned that it could not fully understand an individual’s circumstances and that its responses could be influenced by how questions were framed.
He also cautioned that providing information about UK law was not equivalent to offering the expertise and experience needed to guide someone through a potentially stressful period of their life.
National Legal Service warned that AI-generated responses could misrepresent legal information and give users unwarranted confidence in their understanding of their legal position before they had obtained professional advice.
Metherell said people might understandably turn to AI when feeling vulnerable or uncertain about where to seek help, but stressed the importance of obtaining accurate, professional advice before making significant legal or financial decisions.
