Justice Department Launches Nationwide AI Program

By Netvora Tech News

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The Justice Department is starting a nationwide program to explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its operations. Initially, the focus will be on applications such as chatbots, according to the department. The organization believes it is essential to keep pace with the developments in AI and sees significant added value in its use. "AI will have a profound impact on how justice works, justice speaking, and oversight," the department said. Earlier, the Justice Department had stated that it cannot ignore the possibilities of AI and the importance of data and data quality. "The Justice Department must have an eye on both the opportunities and potential risks of AI. This will all lead to an AI strategy for the Justice Department by mid-2024," according to the Justice Department's 2024 Plan. In its own AI strategy for the Justice Department, the organization sees short-term opportunities for improving labor-intensive administrative and logistical processes, such as scheduling and planning, pseudonymizing judgments, and improving process management through predictive models for intake and routing. AI could also serve as a tool in drafting news releases, letters, and presentations. The Justice Department also believes that AI can improve contact with society and citizens, for example, by automatically summarizing judgments at B1 language level and providing information through chatbots in natural language. "But we also think we can improve labor-intensive processes in the legal field with the help of AI," the organization said. For example, this could involve finding the right case law, analyzing, structuring, and summarizing large, complex files, and drafting concept judgments. Last March, the Rotterdam District Court used AI in a criminal case as a writing aid to draft a sentence. Specifically, it was about drafting a concept for the motivation of the sentence. "The judges and clerk in the relevant case are enthusiastic about the results of this 'collaboration' with technology," the Justice Department said. "The use of AI did not only lead to a faster drafting of the sentence motivation, but also resulted in a clear structure and layout." Regarding the newly announced national program, the plan is to use AI for the time being outside the judicial domain. "The European AI Regulation sets strict requirements for the use of AI in the judicial domain. Requirements that current available AI applications do not yet meet," the Justice Department said. The organization has therefore chosen to develop AI applications that remain outside the judicial domain for the time being. One of these applications, for example, is the development of a chatbot to help visitors to Rechtspraak.nl find information.