Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’), particularly large language models (‘LLMs’) such as Open AI’s ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and Google Bard, pose clear risks when lawyers use them without understanding their limitations. One need look no further than recent news, where an attorney incurred the wrath of a New York federal judge for submitting a brief with cases invented by ChatGPT.
But technology should not be dismissed just because it can be misused. These kinds of tools could revolutionize the legal profession, and a plethora of legal technology start-ups and scholarly contributions have sprouted about them.
The potential of LLMs remains largely untapped in international criminal law (ICL). How these tools reshape ICL will hinge on their ability to navigate its unique features.
Particular Features of ICL
International criminal litigation is largely guided by complex documents. The monumental investigations needed to determine the occurrence of international crimes often result in a massive influx of documentary materials. LLMs are designed to comprehend large volumes of data, but their effectiveness can be hampered by poor-quality scans and documents in languages not commonly used in their training.
Moreover, ICL jurisprudence is diverse. Each ICL institution represents a jurisdiction with its unique repositories for storing its jurisprudence. Despite the existence of centralised compilations like the ICC Legal Tools Database, no publicly available AI tool has been specifically trained on these compilations. In contrast, American lawyers can more easily integrate AI into their domestic practice through various avenues like Westlaw Edge, Lexis +, and Casetext.
ICL also faces significant data security risks. Due to the novelty of LLMs, their security implications remain largely undefined, posing potential threats. Any data breaches in the prosecution of war crimes or crimes against humanity could have catastrophic consequences, such as the identification and targeting of victims, witnesses, and others at risk.
The Present and Future of LLMs in ICL
Nonetheless, LLMs offer immense benefits to ICL lawyers even now, not just in the distant future. These models can transform how lawyers function if appropriately understood and applied (see here for a general book-length survey).
Read full post
https://www.ejiltalk.org/artificial-intelligence-and-international-criminal-law/
