Turning Over Refugee Asylum Claims To Artificial Intelligence Is A Terribl… Wait, We Already Do This?!?!?

Immigration does not make the law blog Above the Law.  But here is a story that combines immigration law and the growing fears of the use of artificial intelligence in law schools and the legal profession.  

The story poses the question “Did you know the United States government uses AI to translate refugee asylum requests? Because it does and it’s generating the sort of human tragedy you’d expect . . . .”  

Check out the post linked above for details of translation errors with devastating consequences.

According to the post, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services uses Google Translate in reviewing asylum applications. As the Rest of the World reports, “Major translation companies like LanguageLine, TransPerfect, and Lionbridge have contracts with U.S. federal immigration agencies, some totaling millions of dollars.” Having turned over critical government functions to private contractors, we’re stuck with those contractors seeking every efficiency to maximize profit and in cases like these the contractors can lean on AI and expect the now overworked and potentially disinterested government client to be responsible for checking its work.”

KJ