A judge in Phalia, the city of Punjab province, has resorted to artificial intelligence software ChatGPT4 in the decision to grant pre-arrest bail to a minor boy accused of attempted rape, Urdu News reported.
Journalist Rai Shahnawaz reported that the judge made it part of his decision to seek help from the artificial intelligence chatbot 'ChatGPT4'. This decision was issued by the court of Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Amir Munir of Phalia on March 29.
Phalia is a small tehsil in central Punjab, while its district is Mandi Bahauddin. Judge Mohammad Amir has said in his decision that a case of bail for a 13-year-old child came before him. The child is accused of trying to rape a nine-year-old child. After hearing the parties in detail, the court came to the conclusion that the child should be granted pre-arrest bail as there are several legal defects in the case.
The judge wrote that after examining the objective circumstances of the case, the court decided to enlist the help of artificial intelligence software 'ChatGPT4' to see how the technology could help in legal investigations in the future.
In the opening part of its 19-page judgment, the court stated the facts of the case. Accordingly, both the accused and the plaintiff are very young. This case's FIR was filed two days too late. While in front of the court, it was also revealed that there is a record of a quarrel between the two families. And on the same day, another FIR was also filed in which the accused family is the plaintiff. While the accused child appeared in front of the court along with his mother, he was embarrassed, and his young age was evident on his face.
The judgment states that these reasons alone are sufficient to investigate the matter further.
According to the verdict, the charge of attempted rape is very serious, but the suspicion that the case is fake cannot be ruled out. While the child's mother is ready to give all kinds of guarantees,
Judge Muhammad Amir Munir of Sessions Court Phaliya writes in his decision that "on this occasion, I thought of taking help from ChatGPT." However, this was done empirically, as the court had already decided to grant bail to the child based on "objective facts."
The judge asked the first question from ChatGPT4 that a minor accused child in Pakistan who is 13 years old can be granted bail after arrest. So synthetic 'ChatGPT4' replied that the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018 is currently in force in Pakistan under Section 12, under which the court can grant conditional bail. However, the final decision on whether a 13-year-old accused will get bail after his arrest will be taken by the court.
He asked the artificial intelligence software what would happen if this were read in conjunction with Section 83 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
ChatGPT replied that according to Section 83 of the Pakistan Penal Code, a crime committed by a child up to the age of seven years will not be counted, and up to the age of 12 years, the child will be considered incapable of committing a crime, but that the application of the clause will be at the discretion of the court.
Here, the judge told ChatGPT4 that the Pakistan Penal Code has been amended and the determination of the criminality of a child up to the age of 14 years depends on the court's assessment. AI thanked him for the correction and said that you are right; the age limit was increased in 2016 through an amendment.
Additional Sessions Judge Aamir Munir asked a total of 18 questions to 'ChatGPT,' where he made two corrections, which the chatbot acknowledged and apologized for.
Finally, when he put the facts of the case before 'ChatGPT' and asked for his opinion on whether the 13-year-old boy should be granted pre-arrest bail or not. So in response, it was said that 'this decision has to be made by the court; however, in light of the facts that are being told, bail can be legally taken.'
In the end, the judge wrote that the bail decision is usually not that long, but because of the use of technology, it was necessary to write the entire discussion.
He said that a copy of this decision is also being sent to the Lahore High Court so that, in the future, the use of technology can reduce the wastage of time and resources.