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From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
Justice Amina Adamu-Augie of Supreme Court of Nigeria (retd) has said that introduction of Artificial intelligence (AI) in the Judiciary system posed alot of challenges like fabrication of authorities, threat to equal protection and jettison the principle of public hearing.
Augie who stated this in Birnin Kebbi while presenting a keynote address during the Law week organized by Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Kebbi State branch, noted that the digital devise also has it’s usefulness such as for research and reduced delay of judgement.
She explained that judiciary,law are not mathematics, rather they are being guided with the sense of reasoning for fairness, equity with human face.
Augie who cited cases of how authorities were fabricated by lawyers in few advanced countries, in US,Canada, Nigeria ,advised Legal practitioners needs to do more work to cross checking some authorities been cited.
She said : ” the risk of fabricated and hallucinated are one of the challenges posed by AI. In 2023,in the United States district Court for the Southern District of New York, a passenger named Roberto Mata sued the airline Avianca, alleging that a metal serving cart had struck his knee during a flight – an ordinary personal- injury claim,of the sort filed every day in every jurisdiction in the world.
“Mr. Mata’s lawyers were an experienced firm; the lawyer who conducted the research had been at the Bar for some thirty years. When the airline applied to have the case dismissed, his attorneys filed a brief in response. The brief was confident and well- written.
“It cited cases in support of its arguments – judicial decisions complete with names, citations and quoted passages, every one apparently directly on the point in issue There was a single difficulty. The cases did not exist. They had never been decided. No Court had ever written them.
“The lawyer, under pressure and short of time, had asked an Al chatbot to perform his legal research, and the chatbot had done precisely what such systems are built to do. It produced text that looked exactly like a correct answer. It invented 6 judicial authorities. It gave them plausible names. It gave them plausible citations. It even composed convincing quotations, attributed to Judges, who had never said any such thing.
” The Court was not amused. It sanctioned them, and it observed, in very strong language, that the episode promotes cynicism about the legal profession and the judicial system itself.”
Justice Augie also noted that AI could be bias, erosion of reasoning,threat to confidentiality and legal professional privilege.
She disclosed that AI would also affected the principle of public -hearng principle under Section 36(3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution, and limits of machine conscience and irreplaceable of the judge.
“A judge does far more than interpret statues and apply precedents. A judge listens,over serves human conduct,and weighs conscience, equity,and peculiar circumstances of each case”.
Justice Augie noted that despite challenges posed, AI could be a tool for strenghtring judiciary system through research,case management,reduce delays and also promote greater access to justice for ordinary Nigerians..
“But it must remain exactly what it was intended to be- a tool in the service of Justice,not a substitute for justice”.
In his remark,the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,Lateef Fagbemi(SAN), noted that Judiciary and Layers must be proper guided on the usage of the AI to sage guiding against errors.
He pledged the readiness of the Federal Government to partner with Judiciary to improve the welfare of the lawyers.
The immediate past National President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Yakubu Mai Kyau commended the State Government for supporting Kebbi NBA branch and uplifting the structures for the Judiciary.
