ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Resumo

Objective: To examine the challenges and opportunities of using artificial intelligence (AI) in criminal justice, with emphasis on its impact on human rights and its compliance with fundamental principles of criminal procedure.

Methods: The study employs formal-logical analysis of legal provisions concerning AI, analytical methods to assess practical aspects of its application in criminal proceedings, a systemic method to identify forms of AI use, comparative analysis of international practices, and generalization to identify strengths, limitations and pathways for improving AI deployment in criminal justice.

Results: The findings show that AI is increasingly used in criminal justice in two main ways: (i) as an auxiliary tool for judges, prosecutors, defenders and other participants, particularly in case preparation, analysis of evidence—such as videos, photographs, electronic evidence, and virtual-reality reconstructions—and automated summarization; and (ii) as a tool for delegating secondary tasks, including document processing, automated transcription, translation, and file organization. The study discusses international examples, including controversies involving AI-generated judicial decisions. Although AI offers benefits—automation, improved accuracy, resource optimization and increased procedural efficiency—it also carries substantial risks. These include algorithmic bias, errors, lack of transparency, breaches of personal data, and potential violations of adversarial procedure, equality of arms and due process.

Conclusion: The effective use of AI in criminal proceedings requires ethical, legal and technical safeguards, including transparency mechanisms, human oversight, data-protection guarantees and standardized regulation. AI can strengthen criminal justice, provided it is implemented within a robust framework ensuring respect for human rights.