Articles by Tess Ikonomou

Technology

'Unsustainable': Nation's leading judge sounds AI alarm

Australian judges are becoming "human filters" as artificial intelligence is increasingly used in legal proceedings, with the High Court's chief justice warning the prevalence of machine-generated arguments is unsustainable. In an address to the Australian Legal Convention in Canberra on Friday, Stephen Gageler said there were increasing examples of AI being used inappropriately by litigants and legal practitioners. "We have entered an unsustainable phase in the prevalence of the use of AI in litigation in which members of the Australian Judicature (courts and judges) are acting as human filters and human adjudicators of competing machine-generated or machine-enhanced arguments," he said. Noting the need to proceed with caution in applying AI to the law, Justice Gageler said the efficiency of the technology meant it could significantly contribute to the functioning of courts and tribunals in a system aiming to be "just, quick and cheap". "It will become both meaningful and important to answer questions the asking of which would have been inconceivable ten years ago," he said. "Why and how much do we value the humanity of the law? Does, and if so, to what extent does maintaining the humanity of the law necessitate the exercise of human judgment?" Justice Gageler said law was one part of the digital transformation with which humanity was grappling, and that the pace of development of AI was outstripping human capacity to assess its potential risks and rewards. "In the uncertain meantime, the Australian judicature has no option but to engage," he said. A review is under way into the use of AI in the law by the Victorian Law Reform Commission, with practice directions issued in most of the nation's jurisdictions, some more strict than others. Before his appointment to the High Court in 2023, Justice Gageler had served as Australia's solicitor-general. Australian Associated Press