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ฉบับพิเศษ ประจำ�ปี 2564

Technology and Artificial Intelligence in

International Dispute Resolution and Arbitration -

Disruption, Destruction or Deliverance?

Steve Ngo *

I. START: LOOMIS AND ENTER THE USE OF COMPUTER

SCIENCE IN THE SCIENCE OF JUDGING.

Starting the machinery of this discourse, the widely discussed topic of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) in judicial decision making would be appropriate to be first mentioned,

in the United States Wisconsin Supreme Court case of State v. Loomis. Key facts in
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Loomis; the defendant, Eric Loomis was charged in connection with a drive-by shooting
and it was reported that before the sentencing hearing, the court ordered the defendant

to undergo an assessment of the risk of re-offending using software called ‘Correctional
Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions’ or COMPAS. Yet the trial

judge considered the software’s report and adjudged that the defendant was identified
by the software through its assessment ‘as an individual who is a high risk to the
community’ and he would commit more crimes. Nevertheless, Loomis appealed against
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the lower court’s decision, asserting that his right to due process was violated by the
judge’s consideration of a report produced by the software product which he was unable

* International arbitrator, academic and arbitration specialist based in Singapore, also founding President
of Beihai Asia International Arbitration Centre. He can be contacted at stevekngo@outlook.com. This article is in
part based on a lecture delivered at the Maxwell Lecture, Maxwell Chambers, Singapore, 13 December 2018.
1 881 N.W.2d 749 Wis (2016).
2 Adam Liptak, ‘Sent to Prison by a Software Program’s Secret Algorithms,’ N.Y. Times (New York, 1 May
2017)/ <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/sent-to-prison-by-a-software-programs-secret-algorithms.
html>/ accessed 31 March 2021

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