Chief Justice Roberts Sees Promise and Danger of A.I. in the Courts

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. devoted his annual year-end report on the state of the federal judiciary, issued on Sunday, to the positive role that artificial intelligence can play in the legal system — and the threats it poses.

His report did not address the Supreme Court’s rocky year, including its adoption of an ethics code that many said was toothless. Nor did he discuss the looming cases arising from former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal prosecutions and questions about his eligibility to hold office.

The chief justice’s report was nevertheless timely, coming days after revelations that Michael D. Cohen, the onetime fixer for Mr. Trump, had supplied his lawyer with bogus legal citations created by Google Bard, an artificial intelligence program.

Referring to an earlier similar episode, Chief Justice Roberts said that “any use of A.I. requires caution and humility.”

“One of A.I.’s prominent applications made headlines this year for a shortcoming known as ‘hallucination,’” he wrote, “which caused the lawyers using the application to submit briefs with citations to nonexistent cases. (Always a bad idea.)”

Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged the promise of the new technology while noting its dangers.

“Law professors report with both awe and angst that A.I. apparently can earn B’s on law school assignments and even pass the bar exam,” he wrote. “Legal research may soon be unimaginable without it. A.I. obviously has great potential to dramatically increase access to key information for lawyers and nonlawyers alike. But just as obviously it risks invading privacy interests and dehumanizing the law.”