Samuel Alito References Claude AI to Decide a Legal Case

During a Supreme Court hearing, Justice Samuel Alito made a remark that elicited laughter in the courtroom. He asked whether Claude AI, a language model developed by Anthropic, should be consulted to resolve a case. This question was posed in the context of the case Jules v. Andre Balazs Properties, which addresses the ability of federal courts to confirm arbitration decisions.

Attorney Adam Unikowsky, who is handling the case, responded by preferring to rely on the court's judgment. Although Claude AI is not directly involved in this case, the mention of this technology was not incidental. Unikowsky, a lawyer at Jenner & Block, is an AI enthusiast and has explored its use in the legal field.

Unikowsky has argued more than a dozen cases before the Supreme Court. He has written several articles about his experiences with AI, claiming that this technology can not only decide cases accurately but also draft judicial opinions. In his tests, he provided Claude with the briefs of several Supreme Court cases and found that the model consistently made correct decisions. Even when its conclusions differed from those of the Supreme Court, Claude's reasoning remained sound.

The previous year, Unikowsky even explored the possibility of allowing Claude to present an oral argument in court. He concluded that courts should permit robot lawyers to argue cases and should not discourage this practice.