Artificial Intelligence Information for Courts

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Artificial Intelligence Information for Courts

Following the introduction of ChatGPT 3.0 in November of 2022, offerings of generative artificial intelligence applications backed by large language models have exploded. Government and business adoption through employees’ use of consumer-licensed tools at work has run far ahead of governance and guidance for that use. This fact has been positive from the perspective of innovation, but negative from the perspective of security and privacy risks since consumers, business, and government entities all require different protections for their specific data. The Supreme Court’s Artificial Intelligence Steering Committee spawned the Tools & Usage Agreements Subteam to provide court users with specific guidance on appropriate tools and related cautions as the generative AI market sorts itself out over time. This webpage provides the latest guidance from the subteam and documents the process for qualifying a new AI tool for local and potentially statewide usage.

Table of Contents

Approved Tools
Local Tools
Prohibited Tools
New Tool Approval Process

Approved Generative AI Tools

Usage of approved tools must not violate any requirements in ACJA §1-509 and must always take into account privacy, security, storage of data and/or prompt content, output biases, reliability, suitability of the need, support level, and licensing. Considering those, the following tools are approved for uses indicated below with non-sensitive, publicly releasable data.

Tool Name	Example Uses	Cautions	Prohibitions
Copilot-Basic, Claude-Chat, ChatGPT-Chat, Gemini (incl. Notebook LM), Perplexity, Adobe AI	Drafting general correspondence or communications Generating content for newsletters and educational materials Creating presentations and training materials Simplifying website or policy language Analyzing sets of data for insights Generating images and illustrations Creating mock-ups for creative professionals Summarizing key information from lengthy documents or a set of shorter documents Performing analysis on complex written materials	Do not rely on Gen AI to provide 100-percent accurate answers; always review and edit generated content. Use extreme caution on sensitive topics & press releases. Information included in prompts may be exposed by the LLM to other users. Answers/output will vary over time and with prompt variance. Carefully scrutinize any image before distribution as factors within the image can represent false/biased or inappropriate content. Verify any and all generated output by fact-checking and/or reading the referenced material. Generated content and summaries may contain biases drawn from the wording of the sources. Know the license agreement provisions for data retention and utilization (these vary within each tool based on license tier).	Never include confidential, personally identifiable, or other sensitive content in a prompt or as input. Never release generated content outside of the organization without review and approval of appropriate leadership.
WestLaw Precision (includes CoCounsel)	Performing general legal research or inquiries using only information contained in WestLaw’s legal library	Requires subscription to WestLaw.	Uploading as prompts any legal memos or drafts of content that will become decision orders or opinions
Lexis+ AI with Protege	Performing legal research or inquiries using only information contained within LexisNexis	Requires add-on license beyond base Lexis offering	Uploading as prompts any legal memos or drafts of content that will become decision orders or opinions
Zoom AI Companion	Productivity tool for summarizing Zoom meeting content in real time.	May be activated and deactivated by the meeting organizer, so always be aware of its status. AI summary is not to be used as official meeting minutes.	Only court-controlled or court-managed Zoom license may be used when activated for any court proceedings.
FTR Justice Cloud	Virtual recorder for court proceedings; voice-to-text transcription; etc.	Any procurement must include revised terms since AI tools make information spoken in court more broadly available than ever before with less control over re-use for undisclosed purposes.
Journey.do from LifeLab Studio	Juvenile Probation story writing evaluation / assessment	For use by probation officers
Adobe Firefly	Text-to-image generation and image editing; text effects		Not for use with any non-public information
Microsoft GitHub Copilot	Automating software code generation. Suggesting software code fixes. Streamlining test item creation.	Use within an integrated software development environment by developers and quality assurance teams. Do not rely on generated code to be 100-percent accurate and secure; always verify any generated content before release.	Never release generated content into production without review and approval of appropriate leadership.
Grammarly AI (Enterprise)	Assistance with general writing tasks including grammar and style checking, tone detection, and plagiarism prevention.	Requires enterprise-level subscription paid by local court.	Use without enterprise-level license is strictly prohibited due to lack of associated controls.

Non-production use of any tool for investigative, testing, prototyping, or pilot purposes is authorized with security controls in place as approved by the court administrator or presiding judge. Usage may not violate terms of ACJA §1-509. No live or production data may be used for testing without being redacted or anonymized beforehand.

Local Tools and Uses

Tools below have already been approved by local court leadership for the specific use case(s) indicated and may be undergoing evaluation for addition to the table of tools approved for statewide usage, by specific use case (see rightmost column for status).

Submitting County	Applicable Use Case(s)	Tool Name	Prohibitions/Cautions	Candidate for Statewide Usage? (Y or N)
COA1	Legal writing assistance	BriefCatch		Y
COA1	Legal research	LexisNexis		Y
COA1	Text to speech	Speechify	Open public content only	Y
COA1	Project task tracking	Trello		Y
COA1	Document summarization	Xodo		Y
Maricopa	Design creation, image editing, Automated layout and content suggestions	Adobe Express		Y
Maricopa	Automated tagging, image recognition, content insights across Adobe apps	Adobe Sensei		N
Maricopa	Copywriting and text optimization; Performance prediction for marketing messages	Anyword		Y
Maricopa	eLearning development platform used to create, manage, and distribute interactive training content.	Articulate 360	Inclusion of sensitive, confidential, or protected court data within training content is prohibited. Requires human oversight of all published content.	Y
Maricopa	Voice generation and text-to-speech; Voice cloning and synthesis for multimedia applications	Beyond Words		Y
Maricopa	Website and UI design; Drag-and-drop page building with design recommendations	Builder.io		Y
Maricopa	Content generation, business communication, and reports that include sensitive information	ChatGPT - Enterprise	Content must undergo human review before release or publication	N
Maricopa	Software code generation and refactoring; vulnerability remediation support; SDLC automation assistance	Claude Opus 4 / Claude - Code	Requires enterprise license and human review of all outputs; entry of confidential or protected court data is prohibited	N
Maricopa	Automating software documentation, test case generation, and requirements validation to accelerate the software development process	Copilot4DevOps		N
Maricopa	Content generation, summarization, and business productivity work that includes restricted information	Copilot - Premium	Content must undergo human review before release or publication
Maricopa	Search and recommendation engine; Personalized content delivery and data insights	Coveo		Y
Maricopa	Executing electronic contracts, agreements, and legal documents	DocuSign	Requires enterprise license, user training, and oversight	N
Maricopa	Strategic insights into companies, industries, and decision-makers’ stakeholder priorities, organizational dynamics, and market context	Emissary.ai	Requires enterprise license and human review of all outputs; entry of confidential or protected court data is prohibited	N
Maricopa	Search and curation of graphics; categorization of design resources	Freepik		Y
Maricopa	Video generation using customizable avatars, voice cloning, and text-to-video capabilities. Supports multilingual content creation and personalization at scale for communication, training, and marketing.	HeyGen	Voice cloning or avatar likeness must comply with applicable consent and privacy requirements. Human review of all outputs required. Entry of confidential or protected court data is prohibited.	Y
Maricopa	Customer engagement automated interactions and personalized responses	IVY		Y
Maricopa	Grammar and style checking; Error detection and writing improvement suggestions	LanguageTool
Maricopa	Content and copywriting support; Generation and summarization of ideas and text	Quig		Y
Maricopa	Adaptive learning tool; Personalized flashcards and content recommendations	Quizlet		Y
Maricopa	Text-to-speech conversion; Voice synthesis for accessibility and multimedia applications	ReadSpeaker		Y
Maricopa	Real-time translation and transcription for conversations, meetings, and digital content. It also can provide live captions and transcripts.	TranslateLive	Audio recordings and transcripts must be handled in accordance with data retention and privacy policies. Use only as an assistive communication tool with required human oversight of all translated outputs. Entry of confidential or protected court data is prohibited.	Y
Maricopa	Converting written content into high-quality, natural-sounding narration for public-facing uses	WellSaid	Use of individual or free consumer accounts is prohibited; does not replace required legal content review, policy validation, supervisory oversight, or established approval workflows	N
Maricopa	Writing assistant for rephrasing and rewriting; tone, style, and clarity improvements	Wordtune		Y
Maricopa	Conversational automation through chatbots and virtual assistants	Yellow AI		Y
Mohave	Voice-to-text transcription	FTR Justice Cloud, Voice-to-Text and Virtual Recorder functions	May not be used in any proceeding types where sensitive or confidential data is likely to be spoken. Note that AI tools make information spoken in court more broadly available than ever before with less control over re-use of collected information for undisclosed purposes.	Y
AOC	Automated drafting of minute entries
AOC	Text-to-speech voiceover recording for computer-based training; creating Q&A or test questions from presentation content	AI Assistant within Articulate Storyline 360	Requires Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) proficiency to edit the audio created	N
AOC	Customer support chatbots

Prohibited Tools / Uses

Current prohibited tools and/or use cases for courts are listed below, as directed by ACJA §1-509.

Specific Uses	Reasons for Prohibition	Example Tools
Processing personal data associated with court users Handling court employees’ HR data	Use case is too risky for the moment; more experience is needed with open, public use data before inputting sensitive data.	Any
Processing public data analysis Drafting correspondence containing non-public information Case review Other internal business processing	Insufficient controls exist for security and limiting of data sharing by the tool owner.	Free versions of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity; any version of DeepSeek
Text-to-image generation	Issues exist with privacy, security, and data collection/sharing practices. Adobe Firefly provides an enterprise-grade alternative for image creation.	Midjourney AI tool

Tools and/or use cases that do not receive approval for statewide usage may not be used beyond the submitting court.

Gaining Approval for a Tool

When you have a local use case which an AI tool is needed to address,

Check the approved generative AI tools table for options. If none of those will work,
Check the local tools table for something used to perform a similar function in another court. If nothing similar appears,
Obtain approval for a pilot or trial use of a tool from local court management. Ensure that local use does not violate any terms of ACJA §1-509.
Once pilot usage proves the tool to be a viable solution, obtain formal approval from your county’s presiding judge. The product recommendation questionnaire (Word version) is optional for approval but required to be submitted to the AOC Director within 30 days including the vendor’s EULA and usage agreement.
All requests are routed to the Artificial Intelligence Steering Committee’s Tools & Usage Agreements subteam. Some tools will be considered for statewide usage and others not, depending on a variety of factors.
When being considered for statewide usage, AOC Legal will review the vendor’s EULA and usage terms while staff and subteam members research the relative safety and reliability of the requested tool for the business case submitted.
A ‘Yes’ verdict adds the tool to the approved table for the specific use case(s). A ‘No’ verdict may add the tool to the prohibited tools table and result in direction to the requesting court to cease usage.

Questions?

Contact Tools Subteam staff at [email protected].