TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) – The Arizona Supreme Court has introduced two artificial intelligence journalists, named Daniel and Victoria, to make legal opinions more accessible to the public and journalists.
The AI reporters debuted about a year ago as part of an effort to bridge the communication gap between complex court decisions and public understanding.
Alberto Rodriguez, communications director for the Arizona Supreme Court, worked with the chief justice to create the digital personas.
“We just saw that maybe there was a gap in our ability to provide a concise summary of opinion,” Rodriguez said.
The AI reporters are designed to resemble real people, even though they are completely computer-generated.
“We wanted the audience to feel like they could identify with them, so we made them racially ambiguous,” Rodriguez said.
The Supreme Court communications team provides Daniel and Victoria scripts based on factual summaries written by the author of each opinion. This process helps Rodriguez streamline his work while making legal documents more digestible for the general public.
“So that made my life easier because I was able to work with them in crafting a script that the audience can understand,” Rodriguez said.
For journalists covering legal cases, AI reporters offer a significant time-saving advantage. While reviewing court documents and judicial opinions can take hours, AI summaries provide quick, accessible overviews.
“You can report on that as quickly as possible because we have really summarized it for you as a journalist so you can report it to the public,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the AI reporters also help communications experts like him work with media. When journalists request interviews with attorneys or legal experts about a judge’s opinion, those experts are usually required to read the entire opinion first. The AI reporters help streamline that process so that everyone involved understands what is happening in the case.
The adoption of AI in the legal sector goes beyond just judicial communication. Jaime Ibrahim, associate director at Southern Arizona Legal Aid, has been using AI to assist with legal research and document preparation for nearly a year.
“It’s actually mainly used to save time and help point you in the right direction if it’s something you’re not familiar with,” Ibrahim said.
However, Ibrahim emphasizes the importance of maintaining strict boundaries when using AI in legal work. Customer confidentiality and data security remain critical concerns.
“We have to be careful to ensure that we never put customer names into an AI database. We are also very careful to ensure that we limit the number of specific facts that we enter,” Ibrahim said.
Despite the growing presence of AI in legal work, Ibrahim emphasizes that it cannot replace professional legal advisors.
“It’s fine to have simple questions point you in the right direction, but at the end of the day you really can’t use that in place of real legal advice from a licensed attorney,” Ibrahim said.
Looking ahead, Rodriguez plans to expand the capabilities of the AI court reporters by offering them in different languages. Ibrahim hopes to use AI in the near future to streamline email communications and customer intake processes.
“This story was reported on-air by a journalist and was converted to this platform with the help of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting across all platforms for fairness and accuracy.”
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Andreas Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by sending an email [email protected] or by connecting Facebookor Tweet.
