Cross Examination by Chatbot

Miscarriages of justice relating to expert evidence in criminal matters are regrettably a continuing phenomenon throughout the common law world. Notable examples outside the USA include the sub-postmaster’s case in England and the Lindy Chamberlain case in Australia. In some of these cases, what has occurred literally ‘beggars’ belief’. In the USA, recent non-fiction books by John Grisham and Justin Brooks, (the co-founder of the California Innocence Project) argue that these problems have also occurred in the USA.

One possible reason for these continuing injustices (which sometimes extend through to the appellate levels) is the difficulty that many participants in the criminal justice system have in understanding and/or challenging various types of expert evidence. When this occurs, this may be to some extent understandable, as lawyers may receive the predominant amount of their training in legal, rather, than scientific, reasoning. Or, it is probably fair to say, they may not have the same level of training and expertise as the witnesses whose evidence they are challenging.

In the PCLL Programme at the City University of Hong Kong (a post graduate certificate in laws which trains law graduates in the practice of law), students receive tuition in (physically in person) conferencing with, examining, cross-examining and medical specialists. As valuable as this programme is, there are limits in extending it any further due to the costs involved and the challenges in medical practitioners being able to give more of their generous time than they already do.

As a result, with the assistance of AI, the presenter is developing a chat bot to facilitate a simulated conference with two AI designed Neuropediatricians, one for the prosecution and one for the defence, in a case of shaken baby syndrome. At the time of the writing of this abstract, an AI software platform being trialed at CityU, has generated two such medical reports. Also, a colleague of the presenters, has created a Chatbot to allow students to successfully conference with a lay witness in a personal injury matter.

Between now and the conference, the presenter will work with colleagues with expertise in AI, to develop a Chatbot with this ability to simulate a medical expert answering these types of questions in a conference setting. It is expected that the presenter will be able to conduct a live demonstration at the Conference to an interested audience of how this would work.