Asymmetries in the moral judgements for human decision-makers and Artificial Intelligence Systems (AI) delegated to make legal decisions

The evaluation of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in legal decisions may concern several factors. We structured a study conducted by administering an online questionnaire in which the participants had to consider different scenarios in which a decision-maker, human or artificial, made an unintentionally benevolent or malevolent error of judgement for offences punishable by a fine (Civil Law infringement) or years in prison (Criminal Law infringement). We found that humans who delegate AIs are blamed less than solo humans. In addition, people consider the error more serious if committed by a human being when a sentence for a crime of the penal code is mitigated, and for an AI when a penalty is aggravated for an infringement of the civil code.