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Transactions on Engineering and Computing Sciences - Vol. 13, No. 02
Publication Date: April 25, 2025
DOI:10.14738/tecs.1302.18401.
Murray, P. E. (2025). Crimebots and Lawbots: Cyberwarfare Powered by Generative Artificial Intelligence. Transactions on
Engineering and Computing Sciences, 13(02). 29-61.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Crimebots and Lawbots: Cyberwarfare Powered by Generative
Artificial Intelligence
Peter E. Murray
Oak Brook College of Law, Fresno, California, United States
ABSTRACT
Crimebots are fueling the cybercrime pandemic by exploiting artificial intelligence
(AI) to facilitate crimes such as fraud, misrepresentation, extortion, blackmail,
identity theft, and security breaches. These AI-driven criminal activities pose a
significant threat to individuals, businesses, online transactions, and even the
integrity of the legal system. Crimebots enable unjust exonerations and wrongful
convictions by fabricating evidence, creating deepfake alibis, and generating
misleading crime reconstructions. In response, lawbots have emerged as a
counterforce, designed to uphold justice. Legal professionals use lawbots to collect
and analyze evidence, streamline legal processes, and enhance the administration
of justice. To mitigate the risks posed by both crimebots and lawbots, many
jurisdictions have established ethical guidelines promoting the responsible use of
AI by lawyers and clients. Approximately 1.34% of lawyers have been involved in
AI-related legal disputes, often revolving around issues such as fees, conflicts of
interest, negligence, ethical violations, evidence tampering, and discrimination.
Additional concerns include fraud, confidentiality breaches, harassment, and the
misuse of AI for criminal purposes. For lawbots to succeed in the ongoing battle
against crimebots, strict adherence to complex AI regulations is essential. Ensuring
compliance with these guidelines minimizes malpractice risks, prevents
professional sanctions, preserves client trust, and upholds the ethical and legal
professional standards of excellence.
Keywords: Cybercrime Law, Lawyers Justice, Criminals Malpractice, Rules of Professional
Conduct
INTRODUCTION
Artificial intelligence (AI) automation is transforming the legal profession [1]. Terms like
'lawbot,' 'robot lawyer,' 'lawyer-bot,' and ‘legal chat-bot’ [2] along with debates over their
capabilities and regulation, have sparked significant controversy [3]. At its core, a lawbot is an
AI application designed to perform legal research tasks traditionally handled by paralegals or
junior associates at law firms [4]. The use of lawbots powered by generative AI by legal
professionals has surged from 19% to 79% over the past year [5]. Lawbots provides lawyers
with powerful AI capabilities to analyze cases, interpret laws, evaluate evidence and optimize
legal processes and strategies. Crimebots are the sinister counterpart of lawbots [6]. Crimebots
maliciously repurpose AI technologies to enable criminal activities [7] and are poised to drive
an impending wave of cybercrime [8]. To avert this crisis, swift and decisive action is essential.
By harnessing the capabilities of lawbots and deploying them as policebots [9], we can
effectively combat the emerging cybercrime pandemic [7]. Critics argue that crimebots, and
lawbot AI misuse, could jeopardize protections for the innocent, facilitate the exoneration of
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Transactions on Engineering and Computing Sciences (TECS) Vol 13, Issue 02, April - 2025
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
guilty criminals, compromise fairness and equity within the justice system [10], and intensify
the harshness of criminal justice outcomes [11]. These risks arise from AI's potential for misuse,
including fabricating evidence, generating deepfake alibis, and producing misleading crime
reconstructions. Such abuses threaten to erode the very foundations of justice [12]. These
dangers underscore the urgency for legal professionals, clients and society to grasp the
beneficial and destructive implications of rules for lawbot AI taking control over the legal and
justice systems.
The use of lawbot AI by U.S. legal profession is regulated by the American Bar Association's
(ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) [13], the ABA formal opinion 512
governing the use of generative intelligence tools (AI Formal Opinion) [14], the State Bar of
California's Practical Guidance for Artificial Intelligence (CPG) [15], and other state and national
laws. While AI developers aim to elevate human capabilities through technology [16],
cybercriminals increasingly exploit AI for fraudulent purposes, often operating from
jurisdictions beyond legal reach [17]. For lawyers and programmers, understanding the good,
bad, and destructive aspects of AI rules, can mitigate malpractice risks, avoid professional
sanctions, prevent client dissatisfaction, foster ethical integrity, and promote professional
excellence in an increasingly AI-driven legal landscape
LAWYERS USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The legal profession is at a transformative crossroads, with advancements in generative AI
revolutionizing the way lawyers work [18]. Similar to lawbots, AI’s everyday influence is
evident in tools like virtual personal assistants such as Siri and Alexa, which recognize speech
and execute commands [19]. These technologies allow lawyers to issue verbal instructions
rather than typing, streamlining routine tasks and reshaping their interaction with technology
in practice. As AI continues to evolve, it has the potential to significantly reduce human
involvement in tasks like preparing evidence and drafting legal documents [20]. This shift
carries profound implications for the future of legal practice, redefining how lawyers serve
their clients in an increasingly technology-driven world. AI's transformative impact on the
justice system is also demonstrated by advanced platforms like LexisNexis and Casetext [21].
These tools leverage AI to generate detailed headnotes for cases, helping users to quickly grasp
key legal principles and identify similar cases. AI also empowers lawyers to conduct Shepard’s
analyses of citations, pinpoint weaknesses in opposing counsel’s arguments, and uncover
opportunities to strengthen their legal strategies [22]. The widespread adoption of virtual court
appearances on platforms like Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the rapid
acceptance and integration of technology into legal practice. Virtual hearings, depositions,
arraignments, settlement conferences, and even trials [23] have become standard, showcasing
how technology is reshaping the legal landscape. The American judiciary and legal system is
widely viewed as being in a state of crisis, plagued by excessive costs, long delays, and
inconsistency leading to a growing lack of public confidence [24]. One reason for this is the vast
amount of information that must be collected and integrated for the legal system to function
properly. Lawbot AI offers unparalleled opportunities to enhance the speed, efficiency, and
accuracy of every digital task in a law practice, from managing communications, such as
answering calls, emails, and messages, to scheduling meetings, depositions, hearings, and trials
[25]. Lawbot AI can perform complex legal research by identifying relevant laws, statutes, and
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Murray, P. E. (2025). Crimebots and Lawbots: Cyberwarfare Powered by Generative Artificial Intelligence. Transactions on Engineering and
Computing Sciences, 13(02). 29-61.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/tecs.1302.18401
case law to draft complaints and motions [26]. Additionally, lawbot AI can analyze court
decisions, predict damages [27], and assist in developing effective case management strategies,
all of which can empower lawyers to serve their clients more effectively [28]. Remarkably,
lawbot AI is already capable of analyzing trends in court decisions and predicting the outcomes
of class action damages cases with 79% accuracy [29]. This capability underscores lawbot AI's
potential to transform the legal profession, possibly even replacing certain
functionstraditionally performed by judges and lawyers [30]. The exploration of the legal
practice applications of Lawbots powered by generative AI is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Lawbots legal practice applications.
Ultimately, the limits of which lawyers will use lawbot AI within their legal practice will rely on
the implementation and enforcement of robust MRPC [13], AI Formal Opinion [14], CPG [15],
laws, rules, and other guidelines designed to prevent misuse and safeguard ethical standards
[31]. AI was created to operate with minimal human ethical oversight and is being developed
and provided by major technology companies, including Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft,
OpenAI, and others. The reliance of legal AI systems on external providers underscores the
urgent need for clear ethical frameworks to guide its responsible use within the legal profession
[32]. The dictionary [33] defines “artificial intelligence” as “the capability of a machine to
imitate intelligent human behavior”. Unlike traditional programming, AI relies on “machine
learning,” a process where machines learn autonomously and make decisions without being
explicitly programmed for each specific task [34]. Machine learning or data mining is a branch