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A judge in India sought ChatGPT’s advice to grant a suspended sentence. Photos/Illustrations
NEW DELHI – Courts in India appear to have to redefine “Judgment Day” after a revolutionary ruling occurred in the country’s top court.
It comes after a judge who was stumped over a verdict decided to ask OpenAI technology whether a murder and assault defendant should be released on bail.
Judges at the Punjab and Haryana High Courts were faced with delivering a verdict during Jaswinder Singh’s trial seeking a suspended prison sentence. Bar and Bench reported Singh was arrested in 2020 for allegedly assaulting and killing someone.
At a loss as to how to handle the situation, judge Anoop Chitkara decided to seek advice from GPT-4, ChatGPT’s latest update that “demonstrates human-level performance on a variety of professional and academic benchmarks,” according to a 94-page report by OpenAI.
“Is jurisprudence released on bail when the assailant violently attacks?” asked the judge.
“If the attacker has been charged with a violent crime involving atrocities, they could be considered a danger to society and risk fleeing,” the cybernetic judicial expert replied.
“In such cases, judges may be inclined to withhold bail or set unreasonably high bail amounts to ensure that the accused appears in court and does not pose a risk to public safety,” he continued.
“In general, however, if the attacker has been charged with a violent crime involving atrocities, such as murder, aggravated assault, or torture, they may be considered a danger to society and risk fleeing,” the app added, as quoted by the New York Post, Thursday (30/3/2023).
GPT-4 concludes his legal dissertation by stating that the presumption of innocence is a fundamental principle of the justice system. The app adds that even if the accused are guilty of aggravated assault, they may still be “granted bail” if the judge judges that they are not a danger to society or a risk of escape.
