Arizona’s highest court has created a pair of AI-generated avatars to deliver news of every ruling issued by the justices, the first example in the U.S. of a state court system tapping artificial intelligence to build more human-like characters to connect with the public. A court in Florida uses an animated chatbot to help visitors navigate its website, but the Arizona Supreme Court is charting new territory with the creation of Victoria and Daniel. Made of pixels, the two avatars have a different job in that they serve as the face of news coming from the court just as a spokesperson made of flesh and blood would do — but faster, the Associated Press reports. The use of AI has touched nearly every profession and discipline, growing exponentially and showing infinite potential when it comes to things as simple as internet searches or as complex as brain surgery. The Arizona Supreme Court venture into AI is rooted in a desire to promote trust and confidence in the judicial system. There was a protest outside the state Capitol last April and calls for two justices to be booted after the court ruled that a Civil War-era law that banned most abortions except when a woman’s life is in jeopardy, could be enforced.
When Chief Justice Ann Timmer took office last summer, she made public trust a pillar of her platform. She had been thinking about ways to reach out to the public using digital media for a few years, and the abortion ruling helped her to solidify the idea that the court needs to be part of the narrative as people learn about opinions and what they mean. Timmer says that if the court had to do the abortion ruling over again, it would have approached the dissemination of information differently. She said that a news release and avatar video could have helped the public better understand the legal underpinnings of the lengthy decision — possibly including what it didn’t do, which she said some misunderstood. “We got a lot of backlash for it and probably deservedly so, in terms of how can we complain that people don’t understand what we did when we didn’t really do enough to give a simplified version,” she said, explaining that people want to know the basis for the court’s decisions and what they can do, such as lobbying state lawmakers for whatever changes in law would support their positions. Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a repeal of the ban last May, and in voters approved a constitutional amendment expanding abortion access to the point of fetal viability. Created with a program called Creatify, Daniel and Victoria bring to life the court’s news releases. Videos featuring one or the other are posted for every ruling, and may be used for community programs and civics information in the future. The court has been sending out releases since October to summarize and explain rulings.
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