Robot doctors and lawyers? It’s a change we should embrace

6th/7th: Amendments together guarantee jury trial for certain types of criminal offenses. 6th requires juries to be "impartial," which means, more or less, that the jury must represent a fair cross section of your community. A jury in West Baltimore should not be composed of 12 white men, for example. Also, you can't deny jury membership based solely on race/gender, so the 14th Amendment is in play too. How AI could meet these requirements is beyond me.

Sixth Amendment guarantees right to effective counsel. I know you'll "No True Scotsman" me and simply assert that these things will be "effective," but surely you must concede that this is an inevitable legal challenge.

You also have a right to confront the witnesses against you. If an AI was, say, a witness - um, somehow, I don't know - how you would go about cross-examining and impeaching AI is just beyond my comprehension at the moment.

The 5th affords you protection against self-incrimination, which is dubiously referred to as a categorical "right to remain silent." While technology like breathalyzers and blood samples have been held not to violate this right, anything coerced unfairly that is "testimonial" violates the 5th Amendment. I don't know what the limits - if any - of AI entail, but shit like telepathy is getting into very murky territory.

By way of background, our Constitution is the law of the federal government. There are different ways to interpret it, and without question, as I've stated, the Constitution is especially malleable in the face of technological advances (looking through your phone records is NOT an unreasonable search and seizure!). But if we take away the role of the judge/lawyer/jury - the foundation of a courtroom - our whole system of justice is literally gone.

Let's also not overlook the fact that, well, your life is in a fucking robot's hands and morally and/or philosophically that seems highly questionable.

/r/Futurology Thread Parent Link - theguardian.com