Is there a place for AI in boardrooms and the courts?

The Chief Justice of New South Wales, Andrew Bell, warns that artificial intelligence is not just a tool but a transformative force reshaping corporate governance and judicial decision-making—often with dangerous consequences. He cautions that company directors are increasingly relying on AI for boardroom decisions, from summarizing reports to generating strategic advice, but this risks undermining their legal duty to exercise independent judgment. A U.S. case involving a CEO who used ChatGPT to justify terminating a contract—and a pending NSW oppression case where AI allegedly influenced minority shareholder treatment—highlight the real legal and ethical risks. In courts, AI hallucinations have already led to fabricated case citations in judgments, including in India and England, prompting the Supreme Court of India to label such use as 'judicial misconduct.' Bell argues that judges must not become 'prompt engineers' and that the integrity of the rule of law depends on human accountability, transparency, and the public’s trust in judicial independence. He warns that commercial AI systems, like the flawed Compass algorithm used in U.S. sentencing, embed systemic biases and operate with secrecy, making them incompatible with legal fairness. The core message: embrace AI’s benefits, but never at the cost of human responsibility, ethical oversight, or the foundational principles of justice.