The UK government has announced plans to introduce artificial intelligence legal assistants into the crown court, in a bid to reduce waiting times and otherwise streamline and ensure cases reach their conclusion in a more efficient manner.
As has been reported by Sky News, the AI assistants are being developed by UK legal experts and top AI developers, with these helpers specifically meant to aid in "routine casework, including research and case analysis", as per the Ministry of Justice.
The hope is that these AI assistants will ultimately improve productivity and boost efficiency, ideally reducing the amount of time victims have to wait for their time in a courtroom. Essentially, while it may sound like Amazon MGM Studios' Mercy is steadily becoming a reality, this is not a tool to be used to charge and incarcerate individuals, it's simply a tool to aid in speeding up case proceedings.
There's no timeline yet as to when the AI helpers will officially be introduced as they will first be trialled in a controlled sandbox environment, where a determination will be made as to whether the software is of a good enough quality to be used across the country.