According to an article written by our guest, “Some of the most
exciting, vexing, and terrifying issues at the intersection of AI and
law involve robojudges. Can we build a robojudiciary that replaces human
judiciaries? Should we? Doing so would massively disrupt how our legal
systems operate. It also might transform democratic self-government.” I
have to ask: Would any of that be so bad? It’s not like humans are doing
such a bang-up job. The risk, of course, is what if we get it all
wrong?
The good news for all of us, not the least of which
are the robe and wig industries, is that we still have time. Artificial
intelligence is advancing rapidly, but it’s still not able to think
like a learned jurist. We can say it will have flaws, but so do our
human deciders. So it will be a tradeoff, right? What are the risks?
What are the upsides? Will robojudges be able to absorb infinitely more
information quickly? Will they hand down decisions free from the
influence of bias? Wouldn’t it be great to eliminate conflicts of
interest?
Joining me to discuss this not-so-out-there concept is Joshua P. Davis,
a nationally recognized expert on legal ethics, class actions, and
artificial intelligence in the law. He is Research Professor of Law at
the University of California Hastings College of Law, and Shareholder
and Manager of Berger & Montague, P.C.’s new San Francisco Bay Area
Office. For more than 20 years Josh was a tenured Professor of Law at
the University of San Francisco Law School, where he also served as the
Director of the Center for Law and Ethics. Josh is authoring two books,
one titled Unnatural Law, dealing with AI and the law, and a second on the important issue of class action ethics.
Finally,
remind me never to assume anything when I ask Josh a question. I said
something like, “Surely we’re not talking about sci-fi robots here,” to
which he basically said, “Not so fast.” This happened more than once.
When will I learn?
This podcast is the audio companion to the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation, a collaborative project between HB Litigation Conferences and the Fastcase legal research family, which includes Full Court Press, Law Street Media,
Docket Alarm and, most recently, Judicata. If you have comments or wish
to participate in one our projects, or want to tell me how insightful
and forward-thinking Josh is, please drop me a note at Editor@LitigationConferences.com.