Launch of 'Artificial Intelligence Community' for Research Supporting Court AI Trial Work

33 Members Hold Founding General Meeting Online

As artificial intelligence technology rapidly advances, interest is growing in whether AI can be introduced into judicial work, and an AI community within the court, led primarily by judges, has been launched.

The AI community held its inaugural general meeting online at the end of last month with 33 members participating and completed the establishment of the CourtNet community. Lee Suk-yeon (55, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 26), a senior judge at the Patent Court, was elected as president, and Kwon Chang-hwan (48, class 36), chief judge at the Busan Rehabilitation Court, serves as secretary. Notably, one-third of the community members are young judges who passed the bar exam.

Cases have begun to arise where the court is asked for opinions on how to resolve legal issues that may emerge with the development of AI. In this context, as judges’ interest in AI supporting judicial work grows, the AI community was established. Lee Suk-yeon, senior judge at the Patent Court and president of the community, said, “Along with the trend of aging judges, case records are becoming increasingly voluminous, and delays in trials continue to be pointed out, but support personnel for trials have not improved compared to foreign countries.” She added, “Many believed that performing basic tasks through AI and then having judges carry out more advanced work based on that would be helpful.” She further stated, “Legal issues related to AI continue to emerge, and I thought research on these matters was necessary.”

The purpose of the research group is to lay the foundation for introducing AI technology into the judiciary to enhance the thoroughness, efficiency, and speed of judicial work through studying AI technology adoption methods for judicial support, researching AI-related legal issues, introducing materials, and holding seminars. It also aims to prepare for legal issues that AI may cause.

Judges belonging to the AI community have even tried programming AI-based judicial support tools themselves. Recently, under the leadership of Secretary Kwon Chang-hwan, teams were formed to investigate the current status of AI technology inside and outside the courts as well as in overseas judiciaries. This investigation aims to be completed by the end of this year.

Additionally, a small group within the research association at the Patent Court is conducting a pilot project in collaboration with KAIST to explore the feasibility of implementing a brief summary function for written submissions using a small-scale generative language model. They also plan to collaborate with the Court Administration Office’s Next-Generation Electronic Litigation Promotion Team to participate in the verification of the next-generation electronic litigation system and share data.

Han Su-hyun, Legal Times Reporter

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.