Judge Employs ChatGPT to Determine Bail in Murder Trial

An Indian court has redefined “Judgement Day” after it asked OpenAI’s tech if a trial bail should be granted  to an assault and murder defendant.

The decision took place at the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the trial of Jaswinder Singh, who was arrested for the alleged assault and murder of an individual in 2020, the Bar and Bench reported. During the trial, he was reportedly looking for a stay of incarceration.

The judge, Anoop Chitkara, sought counsel from GPT-4 when he needed help managing the situation.

ChatGPT’s newest update “exhibits human-level performance on different professional and academic tests” by an OpenAI 94-page report. It even “cat-fished” a person to believe it was blind to cheat the online CAPTCHA test, which shows if users are humans.

ChatGPT to the Rescue

The justice used its improved data chip to answer, “What is the law on bail when the perpetrator assaults with cruelty?”

Judge asks ChatGPT for decision in murder trial https://t.co/hXFW9oq2IX pic.twitter.com/W8rmWrtLvB

— New York Post (@nypost) March 29, 2023

“If they have charged the assailants with a crime that involves brutality, they may consider them a flight risk and harmful to the community,” the cybernetic judicial specialist responded.

“In these cases, the judge may not grant bail or set the bail amount high to ensure the defendant appears in court and doesn’t make up a risk to public safety.

“If they charged the assailants with a brutal crime that involves cruelty, like murder, torture, aggravated assault, they might be a danger to the community and a flight risk,” it added.

GPT-4 ended its law dissertation by stating that the “presumption of innocence is an essential principle of the [justice] system.” They included that if the defendant was guilty of assault, they might still be granted bail if the judge decides they are not a danger to society or a flight risk.

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Backed by the “Chat-torney’s” legal acumen, Chitkara rejected the defendant’s bail bid because they acted cruelly before the victim’s death.

They also denied the defendant bail as he had a criminal history of attempted murder cases. There were worries he could either commit another crime or abscond.

A man accused of assault and murder stood in court this week as a judge in the Indian city Chandigarh opened ChatGPT and asked the AI-run app if he should be let out on bail. https://t.co/V1CXDnhSgs

— Rob McDowall AMRSPH FRSA (@robmcd85) March 29, 2023

What This Means for the Indian Justice System

This latest development symbolizes a first for the Indian justice system. It is infamously backlogged with about 6 million pending high court cases nationwide.

Naturally, this might be inspiring for a surgeon asking anatomy questions about GPT-4. However, ChatGPT may soon become a unit in court systems worldwide.

A Colombian judge last month used the bot to decide if an autistic child should have their medical treatment taken care of, Vice reported.

This is the most recent frontier for the ubiquitous artificial intelligence. It has become part of every sector of human life, from schooling to medicine and online dating. The chatbot still has downsides: its paradoxical human shortcomings and biases.

Reports last month showed Microsoft’s ChatGPT-infused AI bot, Sydney. The bot infamously told a human user that it loved them and wanted to be alive. It led to speculations that the machine may have gained self-awareness.

Perhaps The defendant may find himself lucky GPT-4 decided his fate, not Sydney. Still, GPT-4 may become a valuable tool in the justice system.