A new initiative focused on artificial intelligence and criminal justice is launching this fall, based at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.
Led by Allard Law Professor Benjamin Perrin, the UBC AI & Criminal Justice Initiative will include practical educational resources aimed at law students, lawyers and the general public, as well as a new upper-year seminar and symposium for students.
“I keep hearing from people who work in law who say, ‘I don't know enough about AI,’ and people who work in AI, saying ‘I don’t know enough about law,’ so we have this disconnect,” says Perrin. “We’re creating spaces for these conversations and resources that will help bridge this gap.”
The initiative brings together law students, as well as an advisory group of technical experts and global scholars, including UBC Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor and CIFAR AI Chair Dr. Xiaoxiao Li and University of Chicago Law School Professor Aziz Huq.
“People have heard about cases where lawyers have used ChatGPT for ‘legal research’ and it hallucinated cases, including here in British Columbia – or about predictive policing, which the Vancouver Police Department uses to inform where they police,” Perrin says. “There's a broad cultural interest in this topic, but there’s a lot more happening that people will want to know.”
The initiative is one of several examples of the work being done at Allard Law to ensure students develop AI literacy. In 2021, Law, Robotics & Society, a new course developed by former Allard Law professor Dr. Kristen Thomsen, began introducing students to the legal and policy implications of current and near-future robotic and AI-systems. And over the past several years, Adjunct Professor Jon Festinger and Professor Nikos Harris have been working with the UBC Emerging Media Lab team to incorporate AI into their Judicial Interrogatory Simulator.
In mid-November, the team will release a new primer on AI and criminal justice aimed at the general public, featuring case studies demonstrating how AI already impacts Canada’s criminal justice system – such as the controversy over the use of Clearview AI’s facial recognition software by the Toronto Police and the RCMP.
“In 2020, we learned police in Canada were using Clearview AI software for facial recognition only when it came out in the media,” says Perrin. “When this software was investigated, it was found to have breached the privacy of a massive number of Canadians.” Clearview scraped three billion images of individuals from social media accounts worldwide and was ordered to suspend operations in Canada.
The incident compelled the RCMP and the Toronto Police to create new policies around the use of AI, but the impact of these technologies continues to outpace how quickly law enforcement and the courts can adapt. “Ensuring law students are up to speed on AI is one of the many reasons this initiative is so critical,” says Perrin.
New seminar explores AI & criminal justice
In January, fifteen upper-year Allard Law students will have the opportunity to do a deep dive into AI and criminal justice in a new seminar offered as part of the initiative: Topics in Criminal Justice: Artificial Intelligence.
Students will complete a major project on AI & criminal justice, which could range from a research paper to developing and running experiments on AI and criminal justice chatbots. “I’ll be encouraging students to think creatively about their projects,” says Perrin.
Allard Law student Nathan Cheung is hoping to join the seminar, but is currently on the waitlist. He says he’s interested in learning more about how his peers think about AI and how it might be used in judgments.
Perrin has been working with a team of eight law students to brainstorm and research ideas for the initiative, including Cheung. “It's been a great way to connect with other students who are passionate about similar issues,” adds Cheung.
On April 2, the seminar will culminate in the AI & Law Symposium, which will be open to students, staff, faculty, alumni and the general public.
Casebook aimed at students, lawyers and the general public
On January 8, Perrin and his team will launch Artificial Intelligence & Criminal Justice: Cases and Commentary, a new open-access casebook that offers insights into how AI is already influencing the criminal justice system and what the future might hold. The casebook will be available free of charge on CanLII to anyone who might be interested – students, instructors, practicing lawyers or the public.
Allard Law student Isabelle Sweeney, along with Chueng, was among the law student volunteers who helped conduct research for the casebook. “It's incredibly interesting to be researching a field that can have massive breakthroughs overnight,” says Sweeney, who has been researching how AI technologies are used in judicial decision making.
Another question the casebook and the broader initiative will explore is the role AI will play in either increasing or diminishing access to justice. “People think AI is going to really level the field and that you'll be able to go on some chatbot and get legal advice if you can’t afford a lawyer,” says Perrin. “We already know people are using AI to help them, but it's not that simple.”
Perrin notes that judges in Ontario have rejected submissions from self-represented people that were AI-generated because of fears that some of the cases in their submissions might not be real – “rather than accepting the submission and having their law clerk investigate.”
While many lawyers and judges may remain uncertain about the role AI will play in the legal profession, Perrin stresses that developments in AI have already begun to impact all areas of law. “AI literacy is already a core competency for lawyers,” he says. “We have an opportunity to prepare students for the challenges ahead.”
This article was updated on November 1, 2024.
