Artificial Intelligence and the Rule of Law
Aziz Z. Huq · 2024
This chapter examines an interaction between technological shocks and the “rule of law.” It does so by analyzing the implications of a class of loosely related computational technologies termed “machine learning” (ML) or, rather less precisely “artificial intelligence” (AI). These tools are presently employed in the pre-adjudicative phase of enforcing of the laws. They are also increasingly used during adjudication, for example, to facilitate and guide determinations of individual violence risk during pretrial bail determinations. The chapter begins by presenting a brief introduction to ML&s;s present and likely future uses in the law&s;s enforcement and adjudication, noting the different considerations that apply to these contexts. For the balance of the chapter, I focus on machine learning and use the term “ML” because it is the most pertinent new computational technology, and because the term AI is so broad that it risks confusion. I then consider challenges to rule-of-law values presented by this technological shift. In particular, the chapter explores interactions of ML as a new technology with other, pre-existing social and economic arrangements; I take up implications of this dynamic for the rule of law. Finally, I consider whether the emergence of ML should force a reconsideration of the ways in which the rule of law is conceptualized and implemented, and whether abstract and the practical reflection on the rule of law can be cleanly bifurcated.