Scope for AI to help in justice system but care is needed, says prosecutor

There is scope for AI to be used in Northern Ireland’s justice system but care must be taken, a senior prosecutor has said.

Michael Agnew, the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, appeared before the Stormont Justice Committee on Thursday to discuss delays in the system.

Asked by SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone whether AI could be utilised, Mr Agnew said he could see the potential of it.

“I can definitely see the potential for AI to help but we have to be really quite responsible around it because particularly when you’re a public service and you can’t really afford to get this wrong, and police and myself are dealing with very sensitive information,” he said.

Mr Agnew told MLAs that prosecutors recently visited the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales to discuss pilots using AI that it is running.

“Some of the uses that have been presented to us around that related to document review and analysis, so where you have complex material the scope for AI to really help with that is great,” he said.

“Automated reduction is another one, client-victim communication is another one.

“That is a good idea but it needs to be approached for some care, and there needs to be transparency around that.

“You can see how it could produce a draft but there definitely needs to be a human involved in it, and anybody who’s receiving that communication needs to be aware of the process by which it was presented.”