To the benefit of the legal community, artificial intelligence technology continues to advance. Not only is there the possibility in the future of robots completing certain legal tasks, but also AI may one day have a place at the bench.
Ars Technica reports that researchers from three universities — University College London, the University of Sheffield and the University of Pennsylvania — developed
and trained a machine-learning algorithm to search for patterns in English-language data sets relating to three European Convention on Human Rights articles. It then analyzed 548 cases once heard by the European Court of Human Rights and successfully predicted those decisions an impressive 79 percent of the time.
In more detail, Ars shares that the best predictors of such decisions were language used, topics and circumstances.
“The AI worked by comparing the facts of the circumstances with the more abstract topics covered by the cases.”
But, say the researchers, they don’t see such intelligence replacing judges or lawyers. Rather, they see it as a tool that could increase the efficiency of busy courts.