AI makes Post Office scandals more likely

Yesterday, like a fairy tale wizard, Rishi Sunak waved his hand and seemed at a stroke to right the wrongs of the scandalous Post Office prosecutions that saw more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses falsely prosecuted for fraud. And yet, the legal principle that the Post Office used to ensure convictions remains entirely untouched, meaning not only that similar miscarriages of justice are possible, but that AI makes it increasingly likely in the future. In 1999, the Youth and Criminal Evidence Act ruled that evidence submitted in court from a computer would be presumed correct. If this was provided by the prosecution, as in the Post Office trials, it would be for the defence to show the computer was at fault. “The practical effect of this presumption is to reverse the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defence,” explains IT consultant James Christie. “The Post Office defendants were asked to show the court how they didn’t commit the crime.”