More often than not there are times when a case in the courts that seems like a slam dunk goes the complete opposite direction. This is due to a number of factors, but scientists in the UK believe that they have managed to develop an AI judge that is capable of predicting the outcome in cases pertaining to human rights.This includes cases involving torture, degrading treatment, and privacy. Developed by researchers at the University College London and the University of Sheffield alongside Dr Daniel Preoţiuc-Pietro from the University of Pennsylvania, it seems that the AI they have developed was 79% successful at predicting the verdicts of 584 cases at the European Courts of Human Rights.
According to Dr Nikolaos Aletras, who led the study at UCL Computer Science, “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. It could also be a valuable tool for highlighting which cases are most likely to be violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
The AI analyzed case text using machine learning algorithm to look for patterns. It would then classify each case as being a violation or a non-violation. According to the study’s co-author, Dr Vasileios Lampos, also from UCL Computer Science, “We expect this sort of tool would improve efficiencies of high level, in demand courts, but to become a reality, we need to test it against more articles and the case data submitted to the court.”
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