Computer scientists at University College London have developed software with the capability to analyse evidence and weigh moral and ethical questions of right and wrong with such skill that it can correctly predict the outcome of human rights trials in more than three out of four cases.

The artificial intelligence ‘judge’ has analysed English-language data sets for 584 cases relating to torture and degrading treatment, fair trials and privacy that have come before the European Court of Human Rights. For 79 per cent of those cases, the ‘verdict’ delivered by the software was the same as the verdict handed down by real-life human judges in court.

Robot judges?

Are we looking at a future wherein computer programs serve at the bench and artificial intelligence, rather than human judgement, steers the course of justice? Lead UCL researcher Dr Nikoloas Aletras doesn’t think so: ‘We don’t see AI replacing judges or lawyers, but we think they’d find it useful for rapidly identifying patterns in cases that lead to certain outcomes,’ he told The Guardian. ‘It could also be a valuable tool for highlighting which cases are most likely to be violations of the European convention on human rights,’ he added.

Sources: The Guardian; Wall Street Journal