"Would Humans Trust an A.I. Judge?" - Article by Prof. Alexander Stremitzer (CLE / ETH Zurich) in Slate Magazine

Artificial intelligence judging has become a reality. Last month, a Colombian judge used ChatGPT to generate part of his judicial opinion. Colombia is not alone. Estonia has piloted a robot judge, and the United States. and Canada increasingly use A.I. tools in law.

These recent events have sparked a debate about “unethical” uses of A.I. in the judiciary. As the technological hurdles to A.I.-judging recede, the remaining barriers are ones of law and ethics.

Would it be fair to citizens for an A.I. judge—an algorithmic decision-maker—to resolve disputes? This is a complex legal and ethical question, but one useful piece of data is the views of citizens themselves. Alexander Stremitzer (CLE / ETH Zurich), external page Benjamin Chen (University of Hong Kong), and external page Kevin Tobia (Georgetown University) examined this question by conducting experiments on a representative sample of 6,000 U.S. adults. And the results are surprising: Citizens don’t always see A.I. in the courtroom as unfair.