Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
California courts must adopt AI policies, the Judicial Council says
On Friday, the California Judicial Council adopted artificial intelligence guidelines generated for state judges and court employees. (Image from ShutterStock)
On Friday, the California Judicial Council adopted artificial intelligence guidelines generated for state judges and court employees.
Under New Rule of Court 10.430, a court that does not prohibit AI, by December 15th, will apply to the use of technology by court staff and adopt challenges other than the role of adjudication by judicial officers. This rule applies to the Superior Court, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
There are reports on Reuters, Law.com and the Courthouse News Service.
As directed by California Supreme Court Justice Patricia Guerrero, the Artificial Intelligence Task Force has developed and proposed rules in response to growing public interest in AI and concerns about use by the judicial department.
Within that provision, each court's AI policy must require court staff and judicial officers. “To create or use generative AI materials to ensure that the materials are accurate and to take reasonable steps to correct incorrect or hallucinated output of the materials used.”
Each policy “prohibits entry into publicly generated AI systems of confidential, personal identification, or other private information and “requires a dependency on the generated AI if the disclosure or reliance on the use of generated AI is generally composed entirely of generated AI output.”
The California Judicial Council has also adopted the new standard for judicial administration, standard 10.80, which sets similar guidelines for judicial officers who use AI within the role of the arbitration. This includes suggesting that judicial officers will “consider whether to disclose the use of generated AI if it is used to create content provided to the public.”
The Artificial Intelligence Task Force did not define what constitutes the arbitrary role of judicial officers. According to a report accompanying the new guidelines, judicial officers “are perfect for determining whether a particular task falls in the role of adjudication.”
As reported by Law.com, Brad Hill, head of the Justice and Task Force for the fifth District Court of Appeal, told the California Judicial Council at a meeting Friday that the new guidelines aim to address the risks of AI rather than allowing or banning certain uses.
“The Task Force has determined that the court is in the best position to identify acceptable use of generative AI to meet the specific needs they have, including how to safely use technology to assist with administrative tasks,” Hill said.
In February, the Artificial Intelligence Task Force released a model policy for using generated AI. It said in a report along with the new guidelines it will serve as a resource for courts planning to allow the use of the technology.
California's state court system is currently the largest in the country to adopt AI rules or policies, Reuters reports. They will join several other states, including Illinois, Delaware and Arizona.
New York, Georgia and Connecticut are currently considering rules addressing the use of AI for court-related work, Reuters also reported.
California's adopted rules and standards will come into effect on September 1st.
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