"This is the first verdict in the country when artificial intelligence has been used, to which I am surprised. However, understanding the concerns of many, my decision is entirely personal, private, and autonomous. But artificial intelligence helps to build a chain of texts, which helps to deliver a verdict and make a decision," Padilla told local TV.
He added that the use of such tools in the country's judicial practice does not contradict Colombian laws and helps save judges' time. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Colombian courts have been using digital instruments everywhere, and the AI-powered chatbot is one of these tools, the judge said.
"ChatGPT can even anticipate the decision that a court might make because the principle of equality is maintained while considering precedents, so they serve as a preceding parameter to the decision. The use of this and other instruments does not make the judge lazy, decisions are still autonomous and proprietary," the judge said.
OpenAI's ChatGPT language model, launched in late November 2022, was met with mixed reactions due to its ability to mimic human conversations and generate unique texts based on users’ prompts. Some have praised the model for its professional applications, such as for developing code, while others have criticized its potential for abuse, such as students using the model to write essays.
On Tuesday, a student of the Russian State University for the Humanities finished his thesis with less than 15% of plagiarism while using ChatGPT and managed to pass the defense procedure with a "satisfactory" grade, according to the university.