Lesson 354 of 1455
When AI Is Used in Court
Some courts use AI to recommend bail amounts and sentences.
Builders · Safety & Governance · ~11 min read
When AI Is Used in Court
Some courts use AI to recommend bail amounts and sentences. The use is controversial — and so are the results.
COMPAS, an AI used in some US courts, was found by ProPublica in 2016 to score Black defendants as higher risk than white defendants with similar histories.
Three concerns
- Biased training data produces biased predictions
- Defendants often cannot see how the score was calculated
- No clear appeal process when AI is wrong
Key terms in this lesson
The big idea: AI in court is controversial. Defendants have a right to know if AI affected their case.
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