Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions is the US’s primary predictive analytics tool in the courts. When artificial intelligence (AI) is deployed in high-impact human environments like courtrooms, a volcano of ethical dilemmas erupts. AI improves consistency and efficiency and reduces human error. However, it lacks transparency and moral judgment. Furthermore, AI is a vessel for bias that slips into algorithms, damaging human lives. AI’s consequences generally fall into two categories: broad human rights violations—affecting privacy, education, life, and due process—and systemic bias, exemplified by the unfairness of tools like the COMPAS sentencing algorithm. There is also a clear unequal treatment and violation of the defendant’s liberty. Nevertheless, with transparency of algorithms, there is a brighter path forward. To ensure the safe, widespread use of artificial justice, interdisciplinary collaboration is required.
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