You can barely mindlessly browse the internet these days without stumbling upon some article predicting how ChatGPT is going to revolutionize this industry or utterly destroy that one. And the legal industry is no different — will it end lawyering as we know it? Can it pass law school classes? Does it even understand the Supreme Court? Will it change contract management forever?

But one application I didn’t anticipate — until humans have succumbed to our robot overlords, at least — was ChatGPT giving an assist to a judge in making their decision.

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Colombian Judge Juan Manuel Padilla Garcia, of the First Circuit Court in Cartagena, used ChatGPT in a case between the guardian of an autistic minor and an insurance company over coverage. In his decision, Judge Garcia asked the AI the answer to certain legal questions which he included alongside his own analysis.

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As reported by Legal Cheek:

“The arguments for this decision will be determined in line with the use of artificial intelligence (AI), accordingly, we entered parts of the legal questions posed in these proceedings.”

He emphasised that any information put forward by the bot gets fully fact-checked and the purpose is to assist and speed up the process — not to replace judiciary expertise.

The AI was asked questions including: “Is an autistic minor exonerated from paying fees for their therapies?” and “Has the jurisprudence of the constitutional court made favourable decisions in similar cases?”

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Given ChatGPT’s erm, difficulty, understanding the nuances of American jurisprudence, this is a little worrying. (Recall, ChatGPT completely whiffed on understanding the Supreme Court’s Obergefell case, claiming — incorrectly — Clarence Thomas was in the pro-gay rights majority and Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in the minority of that case.) But this probably won’t be the last time courts try to figure out how ChatGPT figures into their workflow.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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ChatGPT, Courts, Technology