The Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Trial Courts

Artificial Intelligence has quickly entered the realm of everyday life. Without extensive testing, there have been issues surrounding transparency, accountability, and biased decisions made by Artificial Intelligence decision-making algorithms. When a political institution—such as the courts—uses these types of tools, there is a chance that the negative attributes will impact the institutions and actors using them. The court system relies on legitimacy and public approval to enforce its laws and decisions. This study aimed to determine whether the use of Artificial Intelligence would lead to a decrease in public approval and legitimacy of the courts, as well as diminish perceptions of procedural fairness. Employing a survey experiment deployed to 519 nationally representative respondents through Prolific, a vignette discussing a hypothetical judge using an AI sentencing tool causes a significant decrease in public approval relative to a hypothetical judge who did not employ AI. The AI treatment also decreased some evaluations of court legitimacy and perceptions of procedural fairness. This study has important implications for understanding the impact of technological developments on political institutions and the potential toxicity of Artificial Intelligence.