As artificial intelligence chatbots begin creeping into daily use at Australia's law firms, questions have been raised over whether it could also help judge cases.
AI can be used to digest and summarise large amounts of information, and is perceived as a machine driven by logic and unaffected by emotions or biases.
But NSW District Court Judge Ellen Skinner, who also heads the state's children's court, said those biases are often what Australians hope for.
"They're looking for me to identify with them, having had similar experiences and to give them a break," Judge Skinner told an AI panel at South By Southwest Sydney on Monday.
People attempting to dispute parking fines, for example, would lean on her knowledge of the clogged streets and unclear signage.
"Even though, according to law, they're wrong, they're relying on my common humanity," she said.
"If those decisions were made by AI ... you'd be annoyed because you hadn't been able to say to someone, 'come on, haven't you tried to park?"
Judge Skinner took part in the panel discussion in a personal capacity, not on the court's behalf.
Though many people may believe AI is able to overcome unconscious bias, that may not be the case, technology lawyer Matthew McMillan said.
"If there are algorithms which are trained on historical data, which have had that systemic inequality, then you do have the issue of that biases being replicated or amplified," he told the panel.
AI's tendency to hallucinate has already begun creating issues for Australian lawyers.
In August, a Victorian judge slammed lawyers who filed misleading information with the courts after they failed to check documents created using artificial intelligence.
The submissions included references to non-existent case citations and inaccurate quotes.
But this doesn't mean there is no space for AI in the courtroom.
"We will need to start to understand that, potentially, we're not as good as we would like to be, that we've got some shortcomings and we could be supported by a different model, but not overtaken," Judge Skinner said.
Defamation proceedings, for example, are often long and expensive processes.
"Litigation becomes a rich person's game, and that's not what justice is supposed to be," she said.
"We need to do something and AI might be an opening."
It could also play a role in challenging cases like a bail decision for a child that may have used a weapon to break into a house and steal a car, according to Judge Skinner.
The technology could help evaluate evidence to create a risk assessment that would evaluate the child's capacity and the support around them.
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