PROSPECTS OF THE APPLICABILITY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RIGHT TO DEFENSE

Artificial intelligence has moved from the margins of legal practice to its infrastructure. This article argues that the criminal defense bar should treat AI not as a threat to be resisted but as a tool that must be integrated into the exercise of the right to defense, and that the terms of that integration are set by the defense lawyer’s existing duties rather than by the technology itself. Drawing on the European Convention on Human Rights, the Constitution and legislation of the Republic of Armenia, the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence (signed by Armenia in January 2026), recent professional guidance and the case law of 2023–2026, the article identifies three limits on responsible integration: the protection of confidentiality and of the secrecy of the pretrial investigation, illustrated by United States v Heppner; the duty of candor in the face of AI “hallucinations”, now recorded in more than two thousand judicial decisions worldwide; and the equality-of-arms problem raised by opaque AI systems deployed against the accused. It concludes with proposals for procedural reform.