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

在美国，州法院审理了大约95%的法律案件，它们正面临着一个关键时刻。新技术的快速发展，加上COVID-19大流行的社会影响，以及对种族正义的重新呼吁，极大地改变了州法院的工作。影响州法院的新技术包括案件归档和案件处理的自动化，增强智能和人工智能（AI）在法律决策中的整合，以及法院业务从物理空间转移到虚拟空间。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，重新配置法院工作人员中不同职业和技能的组成，解决法院从业人员的工作满意度、学习和福祉问题，促进法院就业结果的公平性，促进法院用户案件结果的公平性，培养公众对整个法律体系的信任。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。该奖项产生的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，为社会中不同群体提供更公平的司法结果，在法院工作人员中获得更公平的就业结果，法院系统层面在效率和案件处理方面的变化，以及提高对法院合法性和社会法治的认识。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、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相关者，进行为期一年的指导思想和讨论。研究团队将：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的综述；2)对州法院中自动化、人工智能和虚拟空间的当前使用情况进行环境扫描；3)召集一个跨学科工作组，审查文献和当前实践，确定研究和知识差距，并制定一个趋同的研究议程；4)确定检查自动化法律流程、基于人工智能的工具和虚拟法庭空间的方法，以寻找偏见的证据；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个研究议程，其中明确定义了关于人类技术前沿州法院未来工作的研究问题和方法。该项目还将形成一个由跨多个学科和部门的研究人员和实践者组成的交流网络，他们对这一主题的研究有着共同的愿景。这项研究产生的知识可以用来为法院工作人员的招聘、保留和晋升策略、法院领导的教育和再培训机会、法院工作人员和公众的科学传播策略以及未来技术本身的发展提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.