UNC School of Law holds mock Supreme Court arguments using AI justices

The University of North Carolina School of Law held practice arguments before the Supreme Court today, but the justices were not people. They were AI programs.

At an event called “May It Please the Machine,” students argued a real Supreme Court case in front of justices powered by ChatGPT.

Faculty members gave the AI background materials, such as court documents explaining each side's arguments. They also created “persona files” for each justice to give each one a different point of view. The AI justices could not use the internet or access any other outside documents. This meant they could not simply look up the real court's decision in the case.

The AI could listen to the students and speak out loud. It could ask the students questions and refer to things the other justices had said.

Nicole Downing, UNC School of Law's Dean for AI, said the goal was not to replace judges with AI. Instead, the experiment tested how well AI could think through legal questions and helped people understand how lawyers might use it as a tool.

“It can apply law, it can do some reasoning,” Downing said. “But the attorney is still going to be so valuable to that process. There is so much originality, creativity, that comes from a human.”

The AI justices reached the same decision as the real justices in this case. But Downing said the AI still needs to improve a lot, especially when talking with lawyers. She gave the AI justices a score of 1.5 out of 10 for their performance.