Perspective of Prof. Karim Benyekhlef: "AI is not the panacea to translate court rulings"

Prof. Karim Benyekhlef shares his perspective on using AI to translate judicial decisions in the article "AI is not the panacea to translate court rulings" by Luis Millán, published in the Canadian Bar Association's "CBA National Magazine"

This article explores the controversy surrounding the request to translate more than 6,000 Supreme Court of Canada decisions issued before 1970 to comply with the Official Languages Act.

Chief Justice Richard Wagner opposes this request due to the high cost (between 10 and 20 million Canadian dollars) and the extensive nature of the work, believing it would not be particularly useful: "Justice Wagner stated that translating decisions prior to 1970 would be of little use and would only 'please lovers of legal cultural heritage.'"

This position has sparked criticism, particularly from Droits collectifs Québec, which views it as discriminatory against Francophones.

The debate extends to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for translating judicial decisions. While AI could offer a quick and cost-effective solution, experts warn that this technology is not yet reliable enough to translate complex legal texts, as it risks introducing errors and inconsistencies.

On this topic, Prof. Benyekhlef highlights two main concerns. First, legal translation involves precise interpretation of the law:

“Law is an art of subtlety in words, he says. Using AI to translate an instruction manual for assembling an IKEA table is fine. But at this stage, it's not possible to translate judgments, especially those of the Supreme Court of Canada, using automated tools alone, however well-developed they may be. They make mistakes.”

Prof. Benyekhlef also points out that AI has a tendency to invent things, a reality his team at the Cyberjustice Laboratory encountered in their JusticeBot project:

AI also has a propensity to make things up as Benyekhlef can attest. He and his team of PhD students conducted a test using JusticeBot, an AI tool developed by the Cyberjustice Lab that provides legal information about Quebec housing laws, compared to generative AI. The new deep deep-learning model, akin to ChatGPT, generated articles of the Civil Code of Quebec that do not exist.

The lack of experienced legal translators and security concerns further complicate the adoption of AI in this field. Ultimately, even with AI, translations of past decisions could never be considered official, adding further complexity to the situation.

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This content has been updated on 4 September 2024 at 9 h 25 min.