Donald Trump’s nomination for the Sixth Circuit, John Bush, is a former blogger who envisions a future where technology is intertwined with judicial workings. Where some of his fellow judges might be wary of artificial intelligence, Judge Bush sees a world where originalists might find aid from AI-generated historical narratives, thereby saving them the time and effort required to construe them. This prediction was shared at the University of Chicago’s Federalist Society chapter and was reported by Nate Raymond of Reuters.
Bush voiced particular interest in the emergence of corpus linguistics in the legal field, a discipline that involves searching and analyzing massive text databases to discern how words or phrases were employed when they were first implemented in law. Bush suggested AI could potentially manage the exploration of these sources, making the process of determining word meaning and usage significantly easier.
However, critics of originalist approach believe that such utilization of corpus linguistics detracts from its academic intentions. Where academics would embrace layers of subtlety and variations in meaning, originalists might misuse these tools to cherry-pick a ‘true’ meaning of a term at a relevant time, therefore undermining the field they attempt to employ.
Bush’s vision of future AI application has raised concerns that results may be skewed by self-serving prompts. While generative AI strives to satisfy the user and can perform tasks that humans couldn’t, poorly guided prompts may result in manipulated conclusions. Critics warn of the risk of AI’s potential misuse, surpassing the threat posed by mere falsified case citations.
Despite criticism, Bush maintains that AI could foster the originalist movement and improve research processes, taking the United States provides further into the age of AI in law. It remains to be seen if and how such technology could reshape the landscape of legal debates.
For more on Bush’s vision and its implications, read Nate Raymond’s coverage at Reuters.