Artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere. Will juries soon be replaced? Would that be good?

The University of North Carolina School of Law in a legal experiment had three AI systems act as jurors and unanimously acquit a Black teenager of robbery charges in a mock trial was based on a juvenile case in North Carolina, where the judge found the defendant guilty. 

The mock trial was conducted on October 24 as part of the University’s Converge-Con AI Festival and featured ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok deliberating with one another as they worked to reach a verdict.  

Understandably, the simulated trial has sparked intense debate about bias, accuracy, and whether machines could—or should—ever replace human judgment in criminal proceedings.  

Some observers love to hate the jury system. And it is not easy to convince people to serve on juries. At the same time, juries have been viewed in some quarters as part of the democratic process. Food for thought.