How AI risks creating a ‘black box’ at the heart of US legal system

How AI risks creating a ‘black box’ at the heart of US legal system | The Hill Skip to content Illustration / Courtney Jones; and Adobe Stock Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an expanding — and often invisible — role in America’s legal system. While AI tools are being used to inform criminal investigations, there is often no way for defendants to challenge their digital accuser or even know what role it played in the case.  “Under current law in most jurisdictions, [prosecutors] don’t have to disclose artificial intelligence use to the judge or defense counsel,” Rebecca Wexler, professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, told The Hill.  AI and machine learning tools are being deployed by police and prosecutors to identify faces, weapons, license plates and objects at crime scenes, survey live feeds for suspicious behavior, enhance DNA analysis, direct police to gunshots, determine how likely a defendant is to skip bail, forecast crime and process evidence, according to the National Institute of Justice. But trade secrets laws are blocking public scrutiny of how these tools work, creating a “black box” in the criminal justice system, with no guardrails for how AI can be used and when...