Tutorial 6 Activities#

A new sentencing tool…#

Context#

It is the year 2039. In the Magistrates court, Judge Judy is deciding on what sentence to hand down to Walter Davis. Davis, a black man from a poor neighbourhood, has been found guilty by a jury for an armed robbery he claims he committed because he lost his job. The armed robbery caused several victims, including a child and a person already suffering from a debilitating illness, to develop signs of post-traumatic stress.

Davis left school early, has a criminal record of drug dealing, and lives in a predominantly black suburb.

Sentencing decisions are made by considering the nature of the crime, victim impact statements, legal precedent across thousands of similar cases, risk of re-offending, degree of co-operation with the court, and expression of empathy and remorse.

Sitting on the bench next to Judge Judy and her gavel is a box, black in colour and about the size of a toaster. It has a red light on top that flashes when the box is talking. This is Justice Arty. Arty is an artificially intelligent sentencing recommendation system designed by Southpointe. He has advanced art deep neural net learning and NLP capabilities, the precise details of which are trade secrets.

Although use by human judges of Justice Arty is not a legal requirement in 2039, many judges prefer to seek his opinion before making their own decision about the sentence. The majority of politicians and the population approve its use, and some legal scholars have come to believe that this state-of-the-art AI assistant should be compulsory in all courts.

Transcript#

Judge Judy: Justice Arty, you have been informed of the various factors relevant to this case, and are aware of everything that I know about it. The minimum sentence for this crime is 3 years and the maximum is 10.

[A soft whirring noise is heard in the court, then the red light begins flashing. The voice that emanates is surprisingly mellow.]

Justice Arty: Thank you, my learned colleague. As you instructed, I have considered the facts and I recommend a sentence of 9 years jail for Mr Davis.

Judge Judy: As always, I shall consider your sage advice. Mr Davis, do you wish to say anything before I hand down the sentence?

Davis: [Pauses] I do, your honour. While I know that Artificial Justices have been used now for years, they are still controversial. Although I’m not a member of the Anti-AI Justice League, I want to know how you can trust this recommendation?

Judge Judy: I understand your concerns. However, I shall point out to you that this machine was designed by AI experts from Southpointe with advice from Australia’s greatest university, The University of Melbourne. Moreover, Justice Arty has been trained on literally billions of pieces of data. How can a human to do all that alone - a mere human with all the biases and weaknesses that they are prone to?

Davis: [with wavering voice] I’m sure I don’t know, and I don’t understand how these things work. But, if it pleases the court, I want to ask the Justice why he would give me nearly the maximum sentence?

Justice Arty: [with light flashing] My decision, as the Judge has noted, is based on a huge and carefully prepared dataset. This includes countless legal rulings, legal arguments, re-offending rates, characteristics of offenders, your own details and background, and much more. I want to reassure you, Mr Davis, that I do not rely on mere human intuition or emotion. Of course, the exact basis of my decision is too complex to be explained to human minds.

Judge Judy: Thank you, my esteemed colleague. Mr Davis, I have made my decision. I sentence you to 9 years jail. Please escort Mr Davis back to his cell.

Activities#

Answer the following questions in your groups:

  1. Who are the stakeholders in this case?

  2. Is the use of Arty potentially legitimate or is it unfair? Defend your view.

Again in your groups (or maybe as a class) answer the following:

  1. What parties are accountable for Arty’s recommendation?

  2. What accountability mechanisms would you suggest should apply to Arty and his use?

Note

As always, post your answers on the forum discussion.