An Indian judge used ChatGPT to make a decision on the bail plea of a man accused of murder — the first such use of artificial intelligence by a court in India — sparking outrage and appreciation on social media.
A bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara at the Punjab and Haryana Court in northern Chandigarh city on Monday sought the AI tool's help while hearing the bail application of Jaswinder Singh, accused of rioting, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy and murder.
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot created by San Francisco-based OpenAI, which was co-founded by Elon Musk. It has stunned the tech community and wider public with its writing ability and responses to requests, which some people claim match the responses of experts.
Others caution that the technology can give confident but dangerously incorrect responses and is not yet advanced enough to think logically.
Mr Singh was arrested in 2020 and appealed to the High Court seeking bail. He is accused of a fatal assault on a man.
The bench hearing his bail plea surprisingly asked ChatGPT on the “jurisprudence on bail when the assailants assaulted with cruelty”.
The AI tool came up with the response that bail would depend on the “specific circumstances of the case” and the “laws and regulations” of the jurisdiction.
“The severity of the assault, the defendant's criminal history, and the strength of the evidence against them are all factors that a judge will consider when deciding whether to grant bail,” ChatGPT also suggested in a lengthy paragraph.
The court, however, clarified that any reference to ChatGPT was not an expression of opinion on the merits of the case and it was only intended to present a broader view of the bail jurisprudence where cruelty is a factor.
It also denied Mr Singh bail as he had a criminal history of two attempted murder cases and there were concerns that he could either abscond or commit another crime.
“Causing death itself is cruel but if the cruelty causes death, the tables turn. When the physical assault is done with an element of cruelty, the parameters of bail also change,” the bench said.
But the court’s decision to use the controversial AI tool has shocked many internet users.
“Would urge caution and restraint in the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT in criminal cases. It is a textbook form of mechanical reasoning. Prone to falsification, invention of facts, and contains biases that build off training data,” Apar Gupta, lawyer and advocate for digital rights, tweeted.
Another Twitter user, Deb Jit, said: “Indian judicial incompetency has reached next level.”
“So should all the legal research be left to the mercy of the chatbots? It is outrageous to rely on AI in criminal matters. What about the human element, forensics and other evidence then?” Kartikey, also writing on Twitter, said.
But there were also people who appreciated the judge’s use of the AI tool.
India has a sluggish judicial system, where cases can drag on for decades because of a huge backlog of cases and an inadequate number of judges.
“ChatGPT should be used for giving judgments and speedy closure of cases. The number of cases pending will reduce. Our legal system wastes a lot of resources — time, effort, etc of all for sub-optimal judgments. The complainant is usually at upper hand,” Shriram Subramanian, a Twitter user, wrote.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
