China is working to build “smart courts” and will improve the quality and efficiency of trials through the use of innovative technology, Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), said in his address at a seminar on informatization held at the top court on Feb 25.

At the invitation of the top court, Liu Qingfeng, PhD, board chairman of Iflytek Co Ltd and a deputy to the National People's Congress, gave a lecture on the latest developments and typical applications of artificial intelligence (AI) at the seminar.

Zhou said the SPC has been actively pushing forward implementation of informatization plans and has made major progress in recent years, which has helped boost the development of people’s courts. To better meet diversified needs, the court system has set the goal of upgrading informatization from the current Version 2.0 to Version 3.0, which is under construction, by 2017 and an improved Version 3.0 for all courts in the country by 2020, according to Zhou.

The new round of technological revolution will lay a solid foundation for Chinese courts’ informatization, Zhou noted. During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), the R&D and industrial application of artificial intelligence represented by intelligent voice technology will further boost China’s industry to 4.0, which will play an active role in the construction of “smart courts”, he explained.

He called for speeding up informatization of the Chinese court system with ongoing upgrading, and for promoting new technologies and improving the quality and efficiency of trials through technological innovations. The court system will integrate application systems and data resources, set up application platforms featuring horizontal integration of services at the same level and vertical management at different levels, and provide judicial services through application of big data. Building “smart courts” helps to promote modernization of the trial system and its capabilities, Zhou said.

In his lecture, Liu introduced the core technologies of artificial intelligence (AI) and the industry’s latest developments and trends, particularly new breakthroughs ranging from smart sensing to cognitive robotics, as well as AI’s value in the judicial system, education, medical care and smart city.

AI technology can be used to set up a voice-based cloud platform to provide phonetic transcription and voice storage services. Based on such platforms, systems can be built for recording, transcription and other applications to improve trial efficiency, Liu said.