Facing the faces of AI in criminal evidence. Report on the seminar EvidencIA

On 6 July 2026, a seminar entitled ‘ EvidencIA – Facing the faces of AI in criminal evidence ’ took place at the Complutense University of Madrid. The seminar marked the conclusion of the first year of a Marie Sklodowska Curie project named Future and had the objective to scrutinize the main problematic issues related to the use of AI in criminal evidence. These pages contain a report on the event, with the aim to present the reflections that took place during the seminar to the academic community and to encourage further debate on the fundamental issues that emerged. The key points drawn from the panellists’ presentations are summarised and conceptualised within three broad frameworks: ‘AI and criminal evidence at the crossroads between systemic balances and effective defence rights’; ‘The pitfalls of AI applied to fact-finding and fact-checking: scenarios of inquisitio generalis and ‘fake truths’ between regulatory gaps and inconsistencies’; ‘AI, cognitive processes and decision-making: between epistemic reliability and humanity of the decision’. Finally, some critical reflections on the main turning points of the seminar are advanced by the author.