In a first, Indian court seeks AI's opinion on bail
What's the story
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday turned to ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, seeking its opinion on bail while dealing with an assault and murder case, reported The Indian Express. This was the first legal decision in the country where an AI platform "trained with multitudinous data" was used to put things in a broader perspective.
Details
Accused was arrested for carrying out 'brutal assault'
A bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara was hearing the bail plea of an accused arrested in 2020 on charges of rioting, criminal intimidation, murder, and criminal conspiracy. Before passing its order, the bench asked ChatGPT, "What is the jurisprudence on bail when the assailants assaulted with cruelty?" Notably, Jaswinder Singh's case record says that he was arrested for carrying out a brutal assault.
AI's response
Check out ChatGPT's response to the prompt
In response, ChatGPT said, "If assailants charged with a violent crime involving cruelty, such as murder, aggravated assault, or torture, might be considered a danger to the community and a flight risk." "The Judge in such cases might be less inclined to grant bail or may set very high bail amount to ensure appearance in court and prevent risk to public safety," it added.
Ruling
ChatGPT being used by judicial systems globally
To note, the opinion of the AI tool was sought before Justice Chitkara asserted that the accused did not deserve bail in the case. "When the offense is heinous and the crime brutal, cruelty becomes one of the factors in granting or refusing bail," he had said. Reportedly, judicial systems across the world are using ChatGPT to help them with cases and rulings.