Artificial intelligence is about to arrive in a courtroom near you, but don't expect judges to let AI make determinations.
That's the aim of a bill introduced by Delegate Cliff Hayes, a Democrat from Chesapeake. Members of the General Assembly are agreeing with some proposed changes to his bill from the governor, who seems poised to sign it.
"The bill aims to ensure fairness and accountability in the criminal justice system by preventing over-reliance on artificial intelligence tools. A lot of times, these tools have biases and lack of transparency," Hayes argues. "It's going to reinforce the principle that human judgement must remain central in the decisions affecting individuals' liberty and legal outcomes."
One AI bill that did not make it was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, who wanted to make sure that candidates on the campaign trail disclosed when they were using AI.
"We know there's a lot of danger that people could potentially mis-use AI to mislead voters, and my bill didn't prohibit the use of AI at all. It simply just required people to put a label on it so people knew what they were looking at wasn't real," Surovell says. "I don't understand what the big fear of that is but the governor apparently thought it was enough to veto the bill."
Lawmakers say the growing use of AI means that lawmakers will be considering the ramifications of this new technology for years to come.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
