FW-HTF-P: Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Remote Conferencing on Work Practices and Equity in State Courts

FW-HTF-P：人工智能和远程会议对州法院工作实践和公平的影响

• 批准号: 2128981
• 负责人: Andrea Miller
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: National Center For State Courts
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2128981&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: FW; HTF; Impacts; Artificial; Intelligence

State courts hear about 95 percent of all legal matters in the United States, and they are facing a pivotal moment. The rapid advancement of new technologies, along with the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed calls for racial justice, have dramatically shifted the work of the state courts. New technologies affecting the state courts include the automation of case filing and case processing, the integration of Augmented and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in legal decision-making, and the movement of court operations from physical space into virtual space. As these technological developments accelerate, courts will need the help of researchers to identify which legal decisions can be made by AI systems or by human-technology teams, reconfigure the composition of different occupations and skill sets within the court workforce, address job satisfaction, learning, and well-being among court practitioners, promote equity in court employment outcomes, promote equity in case outcomes for court users, and foster public trust in the legal system as a whole. This project will lay the groundwork for a comprehensive research agenda on the future work of the state courts. The potential outcomes of the research that stems from this award will include improved access to the courts for individual litigants, more equitable justice outcomes for different groups in society, more equitable employment outcomes within the court workforce, court-system-level changes in efficiency and case processing, and improved perceptions of the legitimacy of the courts and rule of law in society.This project will bring together experts in organizational psychology, social cognition, science communication, computer science, design, engineering, adult learning, and legal decision-making, as well as court practitioners and court stakeholders, for a year of guided ideation and discussion. The research team will: 1) develop a detailed review of relevant literature in the areas of automation, AI, and virtual space; 2) conduct an environmental scan regarding the current use of automation, AI, and virtual space in the state courts; 3) convene an interdisciplinary workgroup to review the literature and current practices, identify research and knowledge gaps, and craft a convergent research agenda; 4) identify methodologies for examining automated legal processes, AI-based tools, and virtual court spaces for evidence of bias; and 5) develop recommendations for future education and training of the court workforce around new technologies. The primary outcome of this project will be a research agenda with clearly defined research questions and methods regarding the future work of the state courts at human-technology frontiers. This project will also result in a communication network of researchers and practitioners across multiple disciplines and sectors with a shared vision for research on this topic. The knowledge produced by this research can be leveraged to inform recruitment, retention, and promotion strategies within the court workforce, educational and retraining opportunities for court leaders, science communication strategies for court workers and members of the public, and the development of future technologies themselves.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

州法院审理了美国约95%的法律事务，它们正面临一个关键时刻。新技术的快速进步，以及新冠肺炎疫情的社会影响和对种族正义的再次呼吁，极大地改变了州法院的工作。影响州法院的新技术包括立案和案件处理的自动化，将增强和人工智能(AI)整合到法律决策中，以及将法院业务从物理空间移动到虚拟空间。随着这些技术发展的加速，法院将需要研究人员的帮助，以确定哪些法律决定可以由人工智能系统或人类技术团队做出，重新配置法院员工队伍中不同职业和技能的构成，解决法院从业人员的工作满意度、学习和福祉，促进法院就业结果的公平，促进法院用户在案件结果中的公平，并促进公众对整个法律系统的信任。该项目将为关于州法院未来工作的全面研究议程奠定基础。这项研究的潜在成果将包括改善个人诉讼当事人诉诸法院的机会，为社会不同群体提供更公平的司法结果，在法院工作人员中实现更公平的就业结果，在法院系统层面上改变效率和案件处理，以及改善对法院和社会法治的正当性的看法。该项目将汇集组织心理学、社会认知、科学传播、计算机科学、设计、工程学、成人学习和法律决策方面的专家，以及法院从业人员和法院利益攸关方，进行一年的指导构思和讨论。研究小组将：1)对自动化、人工智能和虚拟空间领域的相关文献进行详细审查；2)对自动化、人工智能和虚拟空间在州法院的当前使用情况进行环境扫描；3)召集一个跨学科工作组审查文献和当前做法，找出研究和知识差距，并制定一项统一的研究议程；4)确定检查自动化法律程序、基于人工智能的工具和虚拟法院空间的方法，以寻找偏见的证据；以及5)围绕新技术为法院工作人员的未来教育和培训提出建议。该项目的主要成果将是一项研究议程，其中明确界定了关于国家法院在人类技术前沿的未来工作的研究问题和方法。该项目还将促成多个学科和部门的研究人员和从业人员之间的交流网络，他们对这一主题的研究有共同的愿景。这项研究产生的知识可以被用来为法院工作人员的招聘、保留和晋升战略，法院领导人的教育和再培训机会，法院工作人员和公众的科学交流战略，以及未来技术本身的发展提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。