31 December 2023
As we look ahead to 2024, the US Supreme Court published its Annual Report for the Federal Judiciary on Sunday, addressing concerns around the growth of AI in legal proceedings.
In the report, Chief Justice John Roberts commented that:
🔹 “AI obviously has great potential to dramatically increase access to key information for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. But just as obviously it risks invading privacy interests and dehumanizing the law.”
🔹 "For those who cannot afford a lawyer, AI can help. It drives new, highly accessible tools that provide answers to basic questions, including where to find templates and court forms, how to fill them out, and where to bring them for presentation to the judge—all without leaving home.”
🔹 "One of AI’s prominent applications made headlines this year for a shortcoming known as “hallucination,” which caused the lawyers using the application to submit briefs with citations to non-existent cases. (Always a bad idea.)"
🔹 "Some legal scholars have raised concerns about whether entering confidential information into an AI tool might compromise later attempts to invoke legal privileges."
🔹 "In criminal cases, the use of AI in assessing flight risk, recidivism, and other largely discretionary decisions that involve predictions has generated concerns about due process, reliability, and potential bias."
🔹 "At least at present, studies show a persistent public perception of a “human-AI fairness gap,” reflecting the view that human adjudications, for all of their flaws, are fairer than whatever the machine spits out." Although many of these issues will be familiar to anyone in AI regulation, it looks like 2024 will be another interesting year for AI, legal proceedings and the criminal justice system…