Despite the emergency of artificial intelligence (AI), the work and role of forensic and legal linguists will remain relevant in the judiciary, Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo said on Tuesday, July 4. AI is not meant to replace linguists but to support and accelerate their work, Gesmundo – who is still on wellness leave -- said in a speech delivered for him by Justice Jose Midas P. Marquez during the opening of the 16th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL 16) at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. A press statement issued by the Supreme Court’s (SC) public information office (PIO) said that Gesmundo “even acknowledged that AI can lend itself well to the work of forensic and legal linguistics in analyzing vast amounts of data, identifying language patterns even from large volumes of texts, and harnessing deep learning for more complex language analysis.” “Indeed, even with the torrent of such tools, we count on linguists such as yourselves to stay at the helm of the field—especially given the issues that are likely to arise when law, language, and technology intersect,” he said. He pointed out that with the promise of more efficient and more effective tools, “issues are already emerging in the context of artificial intelligence.” He cited as examples “the transparency and accountability of AI systems and their algorithms; biases that seep through from the datasets that AI tools train on; data privacy and security issues, especially given the kind of information involved in legal contexts; the reliability and accuracy of tools; possible ethical considerations, especially as these could impact the administration of justice; and questions over the admissibility of AI generated evidence in court.” “In navigating these issues, we will heavily depend on the expertise of practitioners such as yourselves; and in the coming years, we will look to you in the IAFLL to lead this endeavor,” Gesmundo stressed. He explained that the “work of the Judiciary in a multilingual setting requires a delicate balancing act between standardizing courtroom language for effectiveness and efficiency on one hand, and making space for our native languages to ensure not just accuracy and fairness but also access and inclusion on the other.” He said the SC has initiatives geared towards access and inclusion relating to language. Citing an example, Gesmundo said that early this year, the SC “created a technical working group to draft rules for implementing the Filipino Sign Language Act in the Judiciary, which has been tasked to use Filipino Sign Language as the official language and legal interpreting for the deaf in all the public hearings, proceedings, and transaction of our courts.” He also cited the approved Guidelines on the Use of Gender-Fair Language in the Judiciary and Gender-Fair Courtroom Etiquette, as part of its efforts to combat sexist language in the Judiciary. At the same time, he said the SC “is undertaking efforts to enhance public access to information and legal services via social media Access to Justice information sites with user-friendly, easy-to-understand language on court services and ways to access them, using not just English and Filipino, but also the most commonly used local languages.” He said the initiatives on gender-fair language and enhancing public access are crucial activities under the SC’s blueprint of action for judicial reforms – the five-year Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI). The PIO said there are more than 130 participants onsite and online in IAFLL 16 from 20 countries including the Philippines, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.