For the first time in the Netherlands, a judge in Nijmegen has used ChatGPT as an information source to come to a verdict on compensation in a legal dispute between two homeowners. Many experts in the fields of AI and law are questioning whether this was responsible.

Dutch judge uses AI to determine compensation in court case

The case in question concerns two homeowners in Gelderland who got into a disagreement over compensation. One had done some home renovations to add a floor to his house, while the other homeowner wanted compensation for the decreased efficiency of their solar panels due to the neighbour’s house overshadowing them. 

The district judge used ChatGPT as an information source for the average life span of solar panels and the current average price of electricity. ChatGPT is even mentioned in the court ruling: “The judge estimates, partly on the basis of ChatGPT, that that the average life span of a solar panel from 2009 to be between 25 and 30 years, so for this case we have put it at 27.5 years.”

Using this information, the judge determined how much the loss of efficiency would cost the claimant.  

Experts sceptical about use of AI in judiciary

AI Expert Henk van Ess finds the use of ChatGPT in a court case “ridiculous”. “You have to take every AI bot with a pinch of salt,” he told AD. The case itself is also complicated as experts on solar panels are still divided about the lifespan of the technology, with varying opinions of 25 years to 40 years.

According to tech experts, AI on the internet can be useful as a tool, but answers from the language model should be checked thoroughly. “ChatGPT has no knowledge. It is not a database,” said another AI expert Jarno Duursma. “It is a computer system that guesses the next word in a sentence, nothing more.” 

A spokesperson for the Gelderland District Court has said that the judge only used ChatGPT as one source of information, among others, and that “this data was not the deciding factor in dismissing the case".