Jul 30 2022: Wikipedia articles are heavily influencing judges’ decisions, study finds

Back in Jul 30 2022: Wikipedia articles are heavily influencing judges’ decisions, study finds

A study by MIT researchers found that judges are being influenced by legal articles on Wikipedia. The researchers created new legal Wikipedia articles on Irish Supreme Court decisions and found that having a public Wikipedia article online increased a case's citations by over 20 percent.

The study highlights the need for reliable information on such widely-used platforms like Wikipedia, as judges and their staffs are utilizing it. The researchers also found that judges had paraphrased some of the Wikipedia entries in their written decisions, which raises concerns about the reliability and accuracy of legal information on the internet.

Fast forward to Dec 12 2023: Judges given green light to use ChatGPT in legal rulings

Judges in England and Wales have been given official guidance allowing them to use AI language model ChatGPT to help write legal rulings. While the technology can be useful for summarizing large amounts of text, the guidance warns that chatbots like ChatGPT have the potential to invent fictitious cases or legal texts.

The rise of chatbots could also lead to their widespread use by the public in legal cases, with the added risk of deepfake technology creating fake evidence. The Master of the Rolls acknowledges the benefits of AI but emphasizes the need for judges to be aware of its limitations.

How can AI language models like ChatGPT be utilized in the legal system, considering the risks of inventing fictional cases and being susceptible to inaccurate responses?