About an AI tool that summarizes legal documents such as Google's terms.
Has this happened?
Yes 109 (85%)Not sure 16 (12%)No 3 (2%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About an AI tool that summarizes legal documents such as Google's terms.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
I started wading through the Google example. I got about 0.25 of the way through.
The glosses all seem accurate, if incomplete sometimes. I got a strong sense that they had been reviewed/polished by a human "expert". That might explain the pricing.
I didn't find the glosses much clearer than the original, just shorter. The Google legalese I read was fairly clear. With the document being a legal contract, it's obviously vital to understand the legalese.
I'd be impressed by an AI that can read an employment contract, and say "Whoah! Clause 31-B(ii) is implicitly asking you to sign your descendants into servitude in perpetuity! Perhaps you should take a look!", or "Did you notice that all benefits are contingent on stuff beyond your control?". I'd probably have paid $25 for that, because I've never had a lawyer scan my employment contract. I read them myself, but IANAL.