The rise of the AI judge

Estonia’s Ministry of Justice has begun to develop a “robot judge”that will be able to handle small claims disputes involving less than about $8,000. Estonian robo-judges, which will likely be in session later this year, will examine documents uploaded by both sides of a dispute and deliver decisions that can be appealed to a human. The goal? To free up human judges and lawyers to focus on more nuanced cases. At the same time, efforts to introduce AI into legal systems in the U.S. and elsewhere have faced criticism over claims of algorithm bias.