China is using artificial intelligence to'improve' its court system by recommending laws, drafting documents and alerting'perceived human errors' in rulings. Judges must now consult the AI on every case by law, Beijing's Supreme Court said in an update on the system published this week, and if they go against its recommendation they must submit a written explanation for why. The AI has also been connected to police databases and China's Orwellian social credit system, handing it the power to punish people - for example by automatically putting a thief's property up for sale online. Beijing has hailed the new technology for making'a significant contribution to the judicial advancement of human civilisation' - while critics say it risks creating a world in which man is ruled by machine. China has plugged artificial intelligence into its'smart court' system - allowing it to make rulings, draft laws, and charge people with crimes (pictured, a Chinese court during Covid) China has been developing a'smart court' system since at least 2016, when Chief Justice Qiang Zhou called for technology to be used to improve the'fairness, efficiency, and credibility' of the judicial system.