THERE’s been a minor car crunch on a city street in Brazil, and the two
drivers are screaming and gesticulating, arguing angrily over who’s to blame and
who should pay for the damage. Suddenly, a van screeches to a halt and out pop a
judge, a court clerk and a very special laptop computer. Instant justice has
arrived, cyber-style.
This is no fantasy. The laptop runs an artificial-intelligence program called
the Electronic Judge, and its job is to help the human judge on the team swiftly
and methodically dispense justice according to witness reports and forensic
evidence at the scene…
