The Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Yuan yesterday presented assessments on proposed measures and programs for judicial reform, with officials agreeing to look into the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies to ameliorate deficiencies in the nation’s judicial system.
Legal professionals have started to use AI to assist in their work, Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lu Tai-lang (呂太郎) said at a meeting in Taipei of the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
One of the most important initiatives of the past few years was compiling a vast database of criminal cases to establish the Sentencing Guideline Information System, which aids judges when making a ruling, he said.
Asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) about the use of new technologies to improve the judicial system, Lu said: “The application of AI and other new technologies in the judiciary is very important, but they should currently only be used to supplement existing legal system instruments.”
“Our government would need to invest significantly and devote more resources to develop AI if we are to partially or completely replace human judges,” he said, when asked by Hsu whether AI would eventually replace human judges.
Some legal experts and lawyers have called for AI to be used in courtrooms following criticism and recommendations made at last year’s National Congress on Judicial Reform, as well as the public’s perception regarding the continued predominance of so-called “dinosaur judges,” who have been accused of making rulings that are out of touch with society and of being overly lenient toward criminals without taking into account the harm and suffering of victims and their families.
Legal reform groups have also called for human judges to be phased out in favor of an AI-based system, which they said would use big data analysis to provide optimized legal decisions and would be an improvement over the judiciary’s current operations.
The use of AI in courtrooms would eliminate personal bias, human error and questions of political leanings by judges, judicial reform advocates have said, adding that its implementation would also eradicate the perception of corruption in the judiciary, following allegations that some judges have accepted bribes or personal favors, or bent to political pressure to provide favorable rulings.
Hsu called on Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) to form a task force to investigate applications for AI, big data analytics and other new technologies that could provide supplementary tools to support the judicial system.
Chiu said he would order prosecutors to study the fields, adding that big data analytics and other new informatics systems have been used to compile databases on illegal narcotics, including user behavior and their biochemical effects on the body, and would soon be applied to telecommunications fraud investigations and prosecution.
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