WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts on Sunday turned his focus to the promise, and shortcomings, of synthetic intelligence within the federal courts, in an annual report that made no point out of Supreme Court ethics or authorized controversies involving Donald Trump.

Describing synthetic intelligence because the “latest technological frontier,” Roberts mentioned the professionals and cons of computer-generated content material within the authorized career. His remarks come only a few days after the most recent occasion of AI-generated faux authorized citations making their means into official courtroom data, in a case involving ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

“Always a bad idea,” Roberts wrote in his year-end report, noting that “any use of AI requires caution and humility.”

At the identical time, although, the chief justice acknowledged that AI could make it a lot simpler for folks with out a lot cash to entry the courts. “These tools have the welcome potential to smooth out any mismatch between available resources and urgent needs in our court system,” Roberts wrote.

The report got here on the finish of a yr by which a sequence of tales questioned the moral practices of the justices and the courtroom responded to critics by adopting its first code of conduct. Many of these tales targeted on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to reveal journey, different hospitality and extra monetary ties with rich conservative donors together with Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor even have been below scrutiny.

The nation is also coming into an the start of an election yr that appears prone to enmesh the courtroom indirectly within the ongoing prison circumstances towards Trump and efforts to maintain the Republican former president off the 2024 poll.

Along together with his eight colleagues, Roberts virtually by no means discusses circumstances which might be earlier than the Supreme Court or appear prone to get there. In previous studies, he has advocated for enhanced safety and wage will increase for federal judges, praised judges and their aides for coping with the coronavirus pandemic and highlighted different elements of technological modifications within the courts.

Roberts as soon as famously in contrast judges to umpires who name balls and strikes, however don’t make the foundations. In his newest report, he turned to a distinct sport, tennis, to make the purpose that know-how received’t quickly substitute judges.

At many tennis tournaments, optical know-how, fairly than human line judges, now determines “whether 130 mile per hour serves are in or out. These decisions involve precision to the millimeter. And there is no discretion; the ball either did or did not hit the line. By contrast, legal determinations often involve gray areas that still require application of human judgment,” Roberts wrote.

Looking forward warily to the rising use of synthetic intelligence within the courts, Roberts wrote: “I predict that human judges will be around for a while. But with equal confidence I predict that judicial work - particularly at the trial level - will be significantly affected by AI.”

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