“The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence Upon the Judiciary, ” a webinar held in October 2025 and sponsored by the American Judicature Society (AJS), featured Professor Emile Loza de Siles of the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. In the webinar, Professor Loza presented highlights from her recent national study, which was supported by AJS with funds donated by the Okinaga Ohana. The Honorable John M. Tonaki of Hawaiʻi First Circuit Court served as moderator for the event, which was well-attended by some 100 judges, practitioners, and others.
Professor Loza brings a distinguished background, as a clinical scientist, well-experienced technology and intellectual property attorney, and legal scholar focused on artifical intelligence law and policy. She holds a juris doctorate from The George Washington University School of Law with additional graduate education from Georgetown, Harvard and the University of Houston. She is also a long-standing member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s largest technology professional association, and serves on its Artifical Intelligence Policy Committee. In addition, she sits on the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court’s inaugural “Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Courts,” which issued its final report to Acting Chief Justice Sabrina McKenna in December 2025.
Professor Loza’s study and the webinar addressed and thoughtfully explored the far-reaching influences of AI upon the judiciary. Her landmark study centered upon several key objectives:
- to positively impact the legal community,
- to provide knowledge and serve as a thought model with potential national influence on courts; and
- to help shape the future of the judiciary by enabling AI’s effects on courts and judicial decision-making to be identified and anticipated.
Among her “Recommendations to the Judiciary”, were:
- Responsible AI Governance — Courts should institute responsible AI governance frameworks and procedures as soon as reasonably possible;
- Ethically Grounded AI Governance — The judiciary should build its system of responsible AI governance upon the well-established codes of judicial conduct;
- Comprehensive AI Governance — Judicial leaders should strategically expand their AI-related orders, rules and other AI governance measures to look beyond generative AI and to comprehensively address the types of AI that impact upon the courts, judicial decision-making, court administration, and access to justice; and
- Transparency — Laws and practices to protect the legitimacy of the courts, the independence of judicial decision-making, and ensure careful compliance with the law, relevant standards for AI procurement, and judicial and professional ethical rules.
Recognizing the rapidly evolving growth of AI and its potential for profoundly positive and negative impacts upon judicial practice and the practice of law, AJS expresses deep appreciation for Professor Loza’s Executive Summary. Her in-depth report provides an overview of her key findings, traces the historical landscape of AI’s evolution nationally and internationally, and identifies gaps in AI governance. It concludes with a hopeful, forward-looking perspective intended to serve as a guidepost for the judiciary in the constantly developing discipline that increasingly impacts the rule of law.
Professor Loza’s Executive Summary on The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence upon the Judiciary, a National Study, can be accessed by clicking below.