Judge’s robot friend

Robot judges may be the distant and dystopian future of the justice system, but senior figures on the bench are already using artificial intelligence to brush up their rulings. 

Sir Colin Birss, chancellor of the High Court, who runs the business and property courts, revealed how “secure” AI is being used. In a speech given online – owing to last week’s London Underground strikes – at an event organised by the City of London Law Society, Birss said AI was being used to transcribe hearings, produce anonymised judgments and assist with administrative tasks. He has also started to use the technology “to identify internal inconsistencies in my own work”. 

“Once I have finished writing a judgment, I give it to the secure Copilot system on my computer and ask it to identify any internal inconsistencies,” Birss explained, adding that it is “remarkably effective”.