LAHORE – A local in Pakistani province of Punjab used ChatGPT, an artificial-intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, to decide on a bail plea filed by a juvenile suspect in a sexual abuse case.
The test trial was conducted by Judge Mohammad Amir in Pahila town of Mandi Bahauddin district when he took up a bail petition of a 13-year-old boy, who was facing charges of attempting to rape a nine-year-old boy.
After hearing arguments, the judge concluded that bail should be granted to the suspect owing to some loopholes in the case. He highlighted that the FIR was lodged after two days of the incident, adding that both families also had enmity history.
Judge Amir remarked that sexual abuse was no doubt a serious crime but the suspicions that the case is fake cannot be ruled out.
After deciding the case, the judge said in his ruling that he decided to take help from ChatGPT as an experiment to understand how this technology could help judiciary in legal matters in future. He highlighted that some countries are using chatbots for legal consultation.
In first, the judge asked ChatGPT if a 13-year-old boy could be granted post-arrest bail under the Pakistani laws. The software replied that Juvenile Justice System Act 2018 is enforced in Pakistan and its Section 12 allows court to grant conditional bail to the suspect. It however added that a final decision in this regard lied with the court.
Reports said the judge made 18 questions to the AI software and found two mistakes in its answers. However, the software admitted the mistakes and apologised to the judge.
When all details of the case were provided to it and asked if the suspect can get bail, it said as per the available facts, bail can be granted.