The Use of artificial intelligence in criminal proceedings: ethical and legal aspects

The relevance of this topic stems from the need for a doctrinal analysis of the ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence technologies in criminal proceedings. The purpose of this study was to examine the issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence from the perspective of adherence to the principles of professional ethics by the parties and participants in criminal proceedings. Achieving this objective was made possible through the use of a range of methods, including dialectical analysis (to identify ethical and legal dilemmas) and comparative legal analysis (to study international experience), as well as methods of analysis and observation (to examine judicial practice and identify problematic aspects of the use of artificial intelligence technologies by the parties and participants in criminal proceedings), description (to document the research findings), and generalization (to formulate conclusions based on the research results). Three areas of artificial intelligence use in criminal proceedings have been identified that are controversial from the perspective of compliance with professional ethics by the parties and participants in criminal proceedings, specifically: 1) the use of artificial intelligence in criminal procedural documents; 2) the use of artificial intelligence in the presentation of evidence in criminal proceedings; 3) the use of artificial intelligence to predict the commission of criminal offenses. It has been established that the use of artificial intelligence technologies in criminal procedure documents is permitted when preparing document templates, processing information or analytical data, and searching for case law. However, the use of artificial intelligence technologies to formulate a legal position in a case contradicts the principles of professional ethics, in particular independence, competence, good faith, and confidentiality. It is argued that artificial intelligence-generated conclusions regarding the assessment of the risk of reoffending are of an auxiliary nature, and that the unethical use of artificial intelligence technologies in the presentation of evidence in criminal proceedings poses risks of violating human rights enshrined in international conventions, as well as of evidence being deemed inadmissible. The conclusions emphasize the need to develop ethical standards for the use of artificial intelligence technologies in criminal proceedings.