Chief justice cites AI as tool to enhance court operations

KINGSTON, Jamaica—Chief Justice Bryan Sykes says artificial intelligence (AI) should not be viewed as a replacement for court officials but rather as a tool to enhance efficiency and productivity within the justice system. “Artificial intelligence is not about replacing the people who make the justice system work. It’s not about replacing judges or registrars or any staff member. AI must work with people, not in place of people. It is integrating people and the technology,” Justice Sykes said. “Its proper role and function is to help us to manage information more effectively, reduce repetitive and unnecessary administrative burdens, identify patterns that may require attention, improve access to accurate information, support better preparation, and enable judges and staff to devote more of their time and skill to the work that requires human discernment,” he added. Sykes was speaking during the Judiciary of Jamaica’s annual Strategic Management Retreat, held recently at the AC Hotel by Marriott Kingston. The chief justice noted that the objective is not to create a less human or less humane system, but to better support and to be more responsive and sensitive to the needs of people. “If a technology saves a registrar from searching unnecessarily through records, that time can be used to assist court users and support the work of the court. If it helps staff identify a missing document or a matter requiring urgent attention, it can reduce delay and prevent avoidable inconvenience and, of course, avoidable adjournments,” he stated. “So we must, therefore, approach artificial intelligence with discipline. We must protect confidentiality, we must protect data, guard against bias... but we must understand its limitations... it must never be permitted to displace fairness. So the question is not whether artificial intelligence will replace us... it won’t. It is how we can responsibly make that technology work for us,” he added. On another matter, Justice Sykes said there is a deeply ingrained belief in Jamaica that every dispute must be heard and resolved by a judge. “We need to change that. There’s no legal system that can try every single case that is filed. We have to move to a circumstance where more cases that are filed are resolved without a trial. So this is why we need to embrace mediation,” he stated. “We’ll also be engaging with the court system in Uganda where they have introduced mediation in all of their courts right through to their highest court... the Supreme Court... and are resolving particularly civil appeals without necessarily hearing the appeals to its full extent,” Sykes added. -JIS