By: Atty. Gregorio B. Austral, CPA
The rise of the machines
No less than Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo announced that the courts in the
Philippines would use AI-powered applications in transcribing court proceedings and
legal research as part of the Supreme Court’s blueprint for judicial reform.
This reform will help expedite court proceedings that have been burdened with
caseloads. The latest technology in artificial intelligence has become so advanced that
legal research can be done by simply talking to the computer, and the AI application
answers in well-composed, logical, and concise human language.
This reform in the judiciary will push judges and lawyers to embrace technology
in decision-making and law practice.
While advanced AI applications may expedite work in the judiciary, legal
educators are in a quandary on how to make their tests and assessments reliable in
light of the rise of AI. AI applications are capable of learning all Philippine laws and
jurisprudence in a relatively short period of time and can apply this learning to cases,
both actual and hypothetical.
In the recently launched AI application, the machine can now answer bar
questions with quality comparable to the answers of bar topnotchers. To the students,
this is a great help but a nightmare to law professors who rely on traditional
assessment methods.
The Supreme Court is in its third year of implementing the digital bar
examinations. This trend forces law schools to scrap the paper-and-pencil test, which
has existed since immemorial, and embrace technology in administering examinations.
The latest trends in legal education require law schools to use technology in
teaching law. This remains a challenge for educators since, not being digital natives
unlike their students, law professors are still stuck with their physical class cards
shuffled during oral recitations. But we are heading there. Maybe, we just need a little
more time.