37 - The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Proceedings with Robot Judges as a Different Dimension

Summary

The usage of robots and artificial intelligence is expanding and changing every day. These exciting developments, especially in areas such as engineering, industry, education, and health, have begun to influence the legal world and have become the grounds for many important discussions on the future of law and technology. One of these debates is the question of whether robot judges can take part in a trial, which is the subject of this chapter. Although this problem was previously described as a “distant dream,” there are important examples of this issue on the way to becoming a reality today. Considering developments of AI-enabled and humanoid robots, the following question is posed: “Can robot judges replace human judges?” As a current example, in the “Internet Courts” in China, a robot judge looks like a humanoid robot in the image of a woman using a 3D image inspired by human judges. For this reason, it is important to consider the positive and negative aspects of the possible consequences of the development in the legal world of robot judges that is likely to be widespread in the future, to ensure that the law does not fall behind technological developments.