Serbia Eyes Artificial Intelligence in Courts, but Experts See Dangers

The wheels of justice in Serbia sorely need speeding up. But when President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters last month that it would be "very important" to introduce artificial intelligence into the courts, not everyone was reassured.

Vucic's remark about 'predictive justice' and the advent of "new, real and important changes" came in the context of a year-end press conference covering the full gamut of government policy, so he did not dwell on the details.

Now some digital rights activists and legal experts are sounding the alarm about the need to put the issue to full public debate, after an extensive Chinese-built network of surveillance cameras was rolled out in the capital, Belgrade, in 2019 to the surprise of unaware residents.

From identifying likely re-offenders to catching welfare fraudsters, predictive justice is a fast-growing phenomenon, alarming rights organisations that warn that such software can encourage racial profiling and discrimination and threaten privacy and freedom of expression.

Lawyer Djordje Krivokapic, co-founder of the Belgrade-based digital rights NGO SHARE Foundation, said AI has uses in courts in terms of case-management, automation and assistance in decision-making. But its introduction needs to be properly debated, he said.

"This represents a serious change in our society and some public debate and public discussion on this issue in general should be initiated regardless of the level at which it is discussed - except perhaps at the first level when some types of predictive algorithms are used in case-management to speed up the justice system and make it more efficient," Krivokapic told BIRN.

He warned of the potential for discrimination. "Artificial intelligence and machine-learning...