Judges in England and Wales Have Given the Green Light for the Use of AI in Writing Legal Opinions
According to a report by ABC News, The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary said that AI can now be used to help write legal opinions. But, though AI has been given the green light, they stressed that it should be used for research or legal analyses due to the risks associated with hallucinations.
This worry and expectation was echoed by Master of the Rolls Geoffrey Vos, the second-highest ranking judge in England and Wales, “Judges do not need to shun the careful use of AI,…But they must ensure that they protect confidence and take full personal responsibility for everything they produce.”
This is a pretty bold move and likely a first of its kind in Europe in terms of allowing AI to have a place at the legal table. All of this comes as the UK, along with just about every other nation on Earth, is trying to figure out how to deal with AI’s stage entrance without stifling potential breakthroughs.
For example, a few weeks ago, the UK said that AI couldn’t be named as a patent holder as that’s a uniquely human ability. Similar questions were asked across the pond in the United States to which, a similar outcome was arrived.
But to take it another step further, Bar Associations in the United States have begun to push back against AI, though in a more subtle manner. So what will all of this come to? That’s a difficult question. The only thing that is known, is the fact that the genie is out of the bottle.
So industries and sectors need to figure out how to work with AI. Ryan Abbott, a law professor at the University of Surrey and author of “The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law” echoes the regulation portion of this question, “There’s a vigorous public debate right now about whether and how to regulate artificial intelligence.”
He continued, “AI and the judiciary is something people are uniquely concerned about, and it’s somewhere where we are particularly cautious about keeping humans in the loop…So I do think AI may be slower disrupting judicial activity than it is in other areas and we’ll proceed more cautiously there.”
On a similar note, last month Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote about AI’s potential and dangers if left to its own devices. And this is likely why tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and others have had meetings with Congressional committees all of 2023.
Originally posted on OpenDataScience.com
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