Supreme Court explores AI to translate vernacular testimonies into English

Metro Manila, Philippines – The Supreme Court is taking steps to modernize court proceedings by using artificial intelligence (AI) to translate into English testimonies given in local dialects.

This development is aimed at speeding up case processing and cutting backlogs.

During the Senate hearing on the judiciary's proposed 2025 budget, Court Administrator Raul Villanueva explained how AI has already been making an impact in court operations.

He emphasized that AI is helping judges and justices track case progress, particularly focusing on prioritizing older, unresolved cases.

“Aside from legal research, the monitoring of cases using technology your honor because the Supreme Court would like to make sure that our judges and of course eventually our justices would be able to monitor the progress of their cases so that aging cases can be given priority as well,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva also unveiled plans to translate court testimonies using AI.

“Hopefully, we can come up with an AI that can translate already, for example, testimonies in one dialect can be converted already into… for example, Ilocano to English. That’s something we’re looking into. In fact, we are doing something with respect to some programs that we’re conducting. We’re using AI to translate some messages, some speeches that are being given in the vernacular and translated into English already,” Villanueva said.

Despite these advancements, the judiciary remains cautious about relying entirely on AI. Associate Justice Mario Lopez made it clear that while AI can assist in areas like research and transcription, human judgment remains irreplaceable in legal decisions.

“There are some decisions which should not be left to the control of AI because the court is not only a court of law, but also a court of equity,” Lopez explained. “The human mind is still better. Humanity will always prevail over AI.”

Back in March 2022, the high court had mentioned in a meeting with the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines that it wanted to capitalize on AI to improve court operations, such as preparing transcripts of stenographic notes and digitalizing judgments rendered.

The Supreme Court is seeking an ₱84.39 billion budget for 2025, a significant increase from its approved ₱60.176-billion budget for 2024. The Senate has already approved the budget at the committee level, and it is now set to be presented to the plenary for final approval.