Eliot on AI and Effective Assistance

Dr. Lance B. Eliot (Stanford Center for Legal Informatics) has posted AI Anticipated Impacts On The Sixth Amendment Effective Counsel Provision on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

 

The U.S. Constitution mandates the assistance of legal counsel for criminal defendants. Meanwhile, relevant Supreme Court decisions have clarified that such legal counsel must be effective and that when legal counsel is ineffective there are opportunities to overturn case results. Consider how the question of effectiveness might be altered in an era of AI-based legal reasoning systems.