Arizona Supreme Court unveils AI avatars to announce rulings

The Arizona Supreme Court is using a pair of AI-generated avatars to deliver news of every ruling issued by the justices. It is believed to be the first example in the U.S. of a state court system tapping artificial intelligence to build more human-like characters to connect with the public.

Created with a program called Creatify, Daniel and Victoria (the two AI avatars) bring to life the court’s news releases. Videos featuring one or the other are being posted for every ruling by the high court and may be used for access to projects, community programs and civics information in the future.

Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer of the Arizona Supreme Court joined us to discuss the avatars.

“I wanted video because video is where people get their news; they don’t have time to read through this stuff. So we were thinking about people to use and what should we do, and our PIO, Alberto Rodriguez, brought it to us saying, ‘Hey! We can get avatars to do it!’ and it was sold,” Chief Justice Timmer said.

The goal of the avatar is to keep people informed on what decisions are being made in the Court without a journalist to report their actions. Chief Justice Timmer also said the court sends out press releases now as well to explain their work.

“Whoever the authoring justice is for an opinion will author the first stab at a press release, and all of the justices on the court must approve that and then also approve a voiced script for the avatars to speak,” Chief Justice Timmer said.

One of her goals coming into the court in July 2024 was to “do more in promoting people’s faith and confidence in the courts.” That includes letting the public know the work of the courts, and the avatars assist with clarifying information.

Daniel and Victoria, the AI-generated avatars, can be found on their website. The videos entail the overall information of the case, the news release and the opinion from the Court.

“I think we all are very cognizant of the fact that we need to be better at communicating with people directly and accurately about what our opinions say, so this was fully embraced by everyone,” Chief Justice Timmer said.

In the future, she would like to incorporate another AI-generated avatar that will teach the public how to navigate specific scenarios, such as receiving a traffic ticket.