AI is Already Being Used in the Legal System — We Need to Pay More Attention to How We Use It

By Morgiane Noel, Trinity College Dublin/Activist Post

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become such a part of our daily lives that it’s hard to avoid – even if we might not recognise it.

While ChatGPT and the use of algorithms in social media get lots of attention, an important area where AI promises to have an impact is law.

The idea of AI deciding guilt in legal proceedings may seem far-fetched, but it’s one we now need to give serious consideration to.

That’s because it raises questions about the compatibility of AI with conducting fair trials. The EU has enacted legislation designed to govern how AI can and can’t be used in criminal law.

In North America, algorithms designed to support fair trials are already in use. These include Compas, the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) and the Pre-Trial Risk Assessment Instrument (PTRA). In November 2022, the House of Lords published a report which considered the use of AI technologies in the UK criminal justice system.

Supportive algorithms

On the one hand, it would be fascinating to see how AI can significantly facilitate justice in the long term, such as reducing costs in court services or handling judicial proceedings for minor offences. AI systems can avoid the typical fallacies of human psychology and can be subject to rigorous controls. For some, they might even be more impartial than human judges.

Also, algorithms can generate data to help lawyers identify precedents in case law, come up with ways of streamlining judicial procedures, and support judges.

On the other hand, repetitive automated decisions from algorithms could lead to a lack of creativity in the interpretation of the law, which could result slow down or halt development in the legal system.

The AI tools designed to be used in a trial must comply with a number of European legal instruments, which set out standards for the respect of human rights. These include the Procedural European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice, the European Ethical Charter on the use of Artificial Intelligence in Judicial Systems and their Environment (2018), and other legislation enacted in past years to shape an effective framework on the use and limits of AI in criminal justice. However, we also need efficient mechanisms for oversight, such as human judges and committees.

Controlling and governing AI is challenging and encompasses different fields of law, such as data protection law, consumer protection law, and competition law, as well as several other domains such as labour law. For example, decisions taken by machine are directly subject to the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, including the core requirement for fairness and accountability.