Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is making its way into courts despite early stumbles, raising questions about how it will influence the legal system and justice itself.Judges use the technology for research, lawyers utilize it for appeals and parties involved in cases have relied on GenAI to help express themselves in court.”It’s probably used more than people expect,” said Daniel Linna, a professor at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, about GenAI in the US legal system.”Judges don’t necessarily raise their hand and talk about this to a whole room of judges, but I have people who come to me afterward and say they are experimenting with it.”In one prominent instance, GenAI enabled murder victim Chris Pelkey to address an Arizona courtroom — in the form of a video avatar — at the sentencing of the man convicted of shooting him dead in 2021 during a clash between motorists.”I believe in forgiveness,” said a digital proxy of Pelkey created by his sister, Stacey Wales.The judge voiced appreciation for the avatar, saying it seemed authentic.”I knew it would be powerful,” Wales told AFP, “that that it would humanize Chris in the eyes of the judge.”The AI testimony, a first of its kind, ended the sentencing hearing at which Wales and other members of the slain man’s family spoke about the impact of the loss.Since the hearing, examples of GenAI being used in US legal cases have multiplied.”It is a helpful tool and it is time-saving, as long as the accuracy is confirmed,” said attorney Stephen Schwartz, who practices in the northeastern state of Maine.”Overall, it’s a positive development in jurisprudence.”Schwartz described using ChatGPT as well as GenAI legal assistants, such as LexisNexis Protege and CoCounsel from Thomson Reuters, for researching case law and other tasks.”You can’t completely rely on it,” Schwartz cautioned, recommending that cases proffered by GenAI be read to ensure accuracy.”We are all aware of a horror story where AI comes up with mixed-up case things.”The technology has been the culprit behind false legal citations, far-fetched case precedents, and flat-out fabrications.In early May, a federal judge in Los Angeles imposed $31,100 in fines and damages on two law firms for an error-riddled petition drafted with the help of GenAI, blasting it as a “collective debacle.”The tech is also being relied on by some who skip lawyers and represent themselves in court, often causing legal errors.And as GenAI makes it easier and cheaper to draft legal complaints, courts already overburdened by caseloads could see them climb higher, said Shay Cleary of the National Center for State Courts.”Courts need to be prepared to handle that,” Cleary said.- Transformation -Law professor Linna sees the potential for GenAI to be part of the solution though, giving more people the ability to seek justice in courts made more efficient.”We have a huge number of people who don’t have access to legal services,” Linna said.”These tools can be transformative; of course we need to be thoughtful about how we integrate them.”Federal judges in the US capitol have written decisions noting their use of ChatGPT in laying out their opinions.”Judges need to be technologically up-to-date and trained in AI,” Linna said.GenAI assistants already have the potential to influence the outcome of cases the same way a human law clerk might, reasoned the professor.Facts or case law pointed out by GenAI might sway a judge’s decision, and could be different than what a legal clerk would have come up with.But if GenAI lives up to its potential and excels at finding the best information for judges to consider, that could make for well-grounded rulings less likely to be overturned on appeal, according to Linna.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Gilead Sciences’ twice-yearly injection to prevent HIV — a move the company hailed as a major breakthrough in the fight against the sexually transmitted virus.Drugs to prevent HIV transmission, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, have existed for more than a decade. But because they typically require taking a daily pill, they have yet to make a significant dent in global infections.”This is a historic day in the decades-long fight against HIV,” Gilead chairman and chief executive Daniel O’Day said in a statement.Lenacapavir, marketed under the brand name Yeztugo, has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by more than 99.9 percent in adults and adolescents — making it functionally akin to a powerful vaccine.The company conducted two large clinical trials. The first, involving more than 2,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa, resulted in a 100 percent reduction in infections and demonstrated superiority over the daily oral pill Truvada.In the second trial, involving over 2,000 men and gender-diverse individuals, only two infections were recorded — a 99.9 percent prevention rate, again surpassing Truvada.Reported side effects included injection site reactions, headache, and nausea.Results from both trials were published in The New England Journal of Medicine, and the journal Science named lenacapavir its 2024 “Breakthrough of the Year.”– Price concerns dampen hope –Despite the impressive results, optimism may be tempered by the drug’s cost — a list price of $28,218 per year in the United States, Gilead spokeswoman Blair Baumwell told AFP in an email Wednesday. An earlier long-acting HIV prevention shot — cabotegravir, which is injected every two months and was approved by the FDA in 2021 — costs tens of thousands of dollars per year and has yet to make a major global impact.Lenacapavir’s current list price for its previously approved use as a treatment for HIV is $39,000 annually.Baumwell said the $28,000-plus per year cost for Lenacapavir as a preventive drug is “in line with” those of existing PrEP products and that the company inspects insurers to cover it.”We are working to make Yeztugo accessible for anyone who needs or wants it and expect to see broad insurance coverage,” she said in the email.Activists are urging Gilead to drastically cut the price to help end the HIV pandemic.”Even high-income countries will not be able to afford widescale use of lenacapavir at prices above US $20,000 per year,” said Andrew Hill of Liverpool University, who led a team of chemists and scientists that found it could be mass-produced and sold for as little as $25 per person per year.”I congratulate Gilead and US partners for advancing this important innovation,” added Winnie Byanyima, under-secretary-general of the United Nations. “Lenacapavir could be the tool we need to bring new infections under control — but only if it is priced affordably and made available to everyone who could benefit.”In October, Gilead signed agreements with six pharmaceutical companies to produce and distribute generic versions of the drug, pending regulatory approval, in 120 low- and middle-income countries.Because it will take time for those countries to begin production, the company also announced a separate deal in December with the Global Fund — an international partnership established by the United Nations, alongside the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and others — to purchase doses for two million people.However, cuts to the PEPFAR program under President Donald Trump’s administration have cast uncertainty over the future of that agreement.

Foreigners seeking to study in the United States will be required to make public their social media profiles to allow screening for anti-American content under new State Department guidelines released Wednesday.The State Department had temporarily paused issuing visas for foreign students at the end of May while it came up with the new social media guidance and it will now resume taking appointments.”The enhanced social media vetting will ensure we are properly screening every single person attempting to visit our country,” a senior State Department official said.US consular officers will conduct a conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting of all student and exchange visitor applicants,” the official said.To facilitate the screening, student visa applicants will be asked to adjust the privacy settings on all their social media profiles to “public,” the official said.In an executive order on his first day as president, Donald Trump called for increased vetting of persons entering the United States to ensure they “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”Student visas are one of a series of battles waged over higher education by the Trump administration, which has rescinded thousands of visas and sought to ban Harvard University from accepting international students.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked visas in large part of students who led demonstrations critical of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, as he uses an obscure law that allows the removal of people deemed to go against US foreign policy interests.In April, the Department of Homeland Security said the social media of foreign student applicants would be examined for “antisemitic activity” that could result in visa denial.The US government has been vetting the social media of persons seeking to immigrate to the United States or obtain a green card for more than a decade.