Britain's creaking courts to use Copilot for transcriptions

The British government will expand the use of AI in courts in England and Wales as part of plans to make them work faster, justice minister David Lammy has told a Microsoft AI event.

Lammy, who is also deputy prime minister, said the technology will be used to support processes including transcribing speech, summarizing judgments, and scheduling cases.

"We are of course already using AI to unleash the potential of our staff, including through Microsoft's AI assistant, Copilot, of which the Ministry of Justice has been one of the fastest growing users across government," he told the Microsoft AI tour event at Excel London on 24 February.

Lammy said that courts and tribunals are testing technology already used by the Probation Service to transcribe meetings between offenders and officers, which he claimed has saved more than 25,000 hours because officers no longer need to type up notes.

He ...