Tailored AI Systems for Legislative Drafting: Embracing the Complexity of Parliamentary Operations
Written on July, 2023
Introduction
The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionise various aspects of our modern society. One crucial area experiencing such transformation is the domain of legislative drafting. However, generic AI solutions such as natural language generation (NLG) tools, despite their broader application, can often struggle with the specific demands of parliamentary operations. There is an emerging discourse surrounding the importance and advantages of tailored drafting systems that can adapt to the particular syntax, terminology, and protocols that constitute legislative language.
AI in Legislative Drafting: The Need for Tailoring
AI, in its most accessible form, is often encapsulated within tools offering broad utility. These tools, however, primarily focus on general language usage, which does not cater to the niche needs inherent to the legislative drafting process. Legislative bodies have distinct rules for drafting legislation, derived from time-honoured traditions. These customs provide a vast corpus of documents that serve as a reservoir of knowledge that can be exploited to refine AI technologies for bespoke purposes. This resource, if adequately managed and integrated with AI, can transform generic NLG tools into specific drafting systems, significantly augmenting the legislative drafting process.
The Key Advantages of Tailored Systems
Tailored AI systems that respond to the unique demands of legislative drafting offer several advantages. Firstly, they present an opportunity to draft early versions of legislative texts. While human intervention would still be required for refinement and finalisation, tailored systems could dramatically reduce the initial workload. Secondly, tailored AI systems can accommodate specific jurisdictional needs, protecting against the risk of dominant cultures enforcing their methodologies and styles on global platforms. As various jurisdictions have different styles of legislative drafting, it becomes vital that AI systems be trained on these specific texts, preserving diversity and local relevance.
Furthermore, a tailored system would also be more capable of handling specific artifacts unique to a particular legislative document, from correct title placements to managing amendments. Such systems could follow the life of a bill through different stages of the legislative process, saving time and improving precision. They can manage complex guidelines and adapt to the evolving legislative landscape, integrating changes in real-time and updating the draft accordingly.
Challenges
While the benefits of tailored AI systems are evident, their realisation does not come without challenges. One significant issue arises from the fact that legal language has evolved over time. Training AI on historical data might therefore result in anachronistic drafting, suggesting a need for careful curation of training data.
Moreover, the notion of AI replacing human judgement, especially in the intricate process of legislative drafting, is fraught with ethical and practical implications. As we embrace AI's potentials, the importance of human oversight and the preservation of human agency in the process cannot be overemphasised.
Conclusion
The advent of AI in legislative drafting represents an exciting frontier, ripe with opportunities for improved efficiency and precision. However, the journey towards achieving this vision is laden with challenges. Tailored AI systems, designed to handle the unique demands of parliamentary operations, offer a promising path forward, but their development and integration must be executed with a keen eye for preserving the essence of legislative drafting – its human element, its diversity, and its adherence to established practices and norms.