'Ethical' artificial intelligence no silver bullet to due process issues, says panel

Bail is the most common area of AI integration in the U.S., and is used in jurisdictions housing more than a quarter of the U.S. population, said Thomas as part of the Data & Design Symposium put on by The Action Group on Access to Justice. The technology -- used to measure risk factors such as re-offending or failure to appear -- has been controversial. "Criminal justice data has got generations of historic bias -- systemic bias -- against African Americans and other communities in the U.S.," said Thomas. Some people argue that such technologies should not be used at all, said Thomas, because "if the data is inherently discriminatory it means the outcome is inevitably discriminatory." However, the reality is not so simple, Thomas said.