AI vs. Human Mock Criminal Trial
October 24 @ 10:00 am - 11:30 am
A Jury of your AI Peers? The Trial of Henry Justus
The year is 2036, and Henry Justus, an African American high school senior, stands trial on a charge of robbery of Victor Fehler, a white high school sophomore, before a jury of widely used artificial intelligence programs under the imaginary AI Criminal Justice Act of 2035. This trial simulation imagines that generative artificial intelligence models will be used in the future as jurors to reduce the operation of human bias and other cognitive errors by judges. This exercise will use present day technology to simulate such a trial with human actors playing the roles of prosecutor, defense lawyer, victim and defendant before a jury of three generative AI programs. This trial will be simulated but not scripted, so all participants will learn the verdicts of the three large language models serving as jurors along with the audience. This simulation will be followed by brief commentary from a panel of experts composed of legal scholars, a philosopher and a data librarian.
This simulated trial—one of the first of its kind–is being conducted by the University of North Carolina School of Law as part of Converge-Con), a large AI Festival taking place at UNC-Chapel Hill from October 22nd through 24th.
The trial of Henry Justus is intended to provoke discussion about the proper scope of artificial intelligence in criminal justice by highlighting the issues of accuracy, efficiency, bias and legitimacy raised by such use. Whether the trial serves as a cautionary tale about a possible dystopian future or a roadmap to a better one will remain to be seen.
