On April 6, 2021 the “AI Committee” of the Supreme Court announced SUPACE, i.e. the Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court’s Efficiency, at a launch event streamed live on YouTube. At the event, we were introduced to SUPACE, which is the Supreme Court’s new artificial intelligence assistant. According to the then Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Justice Bobde, SUPACE would collect relevant facts and law and analyse them for Supreme Court judges. Without explaining much more, we were assured that the functions of SUPACE would not spill over into decision making, which would be retained by the judges as an essential human function.
A month later, we still have nearly no information on how SUPACE is going to function, and even littler information on what the new AI Committee is. There has been no vision document, no proposal, no rules or regulations framed, no policy plan, nothing. Either for the AI Committee or for SUPACE. The AI Committee does not find a mention in the Supreme Court’s list of committees (https://main.sci.gov.in/committees), which was last updated two days ago. Even the YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L4pjE47Kmg) for the SUPACE launch event has been made private.
What gives?