He is already a little excited, reveals the legal scholar Professor Kai von Lewinski during the filming of the quiz show in the studio of the Centre for Media and Communication at the University of Passau. His opponent is the chatbot Juri, which the team of computer scientist Professor Steffen Herbold programmed based on ChatGPT. The chatbot was not specially trained with German legal texts. "We asked ourselves what the system can already do in German criminal and civil law, as the system is generally very powerful," says Professor Herbold, who conducts research into AI engineering and was able to prove in a study that ChatGPT writes better school essays, among other things.
So how does the chatbot fare against the expert? The "Kai vs. AI" format celebrated its premiere at an event as part of the Uni Live university series in Passau's historic town centre, which was met with great interest. The questions in the video come from this event and were asked by the audience. We brought the two professors into the studio and asked them to categorise the results for us.
Video (in German):
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Question 1: What is the difference in criminal law between murder and manslaughter?
The professor presents both the opinion voiced in the literature and the position in case law. The AI, on the other hand, refers to the opinion voiced in the literature. Professor von Lewinski suspects that this could be due to the training data. While the scientific texts are freely accessible as training data, the case law is predominantly found in closed databases. Computer scientist Professor Herbold confirms this: "The AI does not necessarily have the right opinion, but the opinion that it finds most frequently." So the point goes to the lawyer.
Question 2: Is a beekeeper allowed to follow a swarm of bees, for example to other properties?
Both the professor and the AI give the correct answer. So a draw and points to both. Given the rather specialised nature of the question, you would have thought that the lawyer would have an advantage here. However, Professor Kai von Lewinski is not surprised by the strong performance of the AI, as bee law is a legal classic in German civil law that students are already familiar with from their studies.
Question 3: How does a human clone affect inheritance law?
This question addresses a very important topic - what makes a human being? Professor Kai von Lewinski freely admits that he probably got lost in the professorial worlds of legal philosophy here. The chatbot, on the other hand, provides a clear and correct answer. The chatbot, on the other hand, provides a clear and correct answer. A clone is not a natural person and therefore has no inheritance rights. Point for the AI.
Question 4: What legal recourse is there in a neighbourhood dispute if I want to protect my children from the sight of drug-addicted neighbours running around naked in their garden?
The professor first analyses what legal bases there are and comes to the conclusion that there is not really much that can be done legally. You have to look at your own property to see whether it is possible to build a privacy screen. The chatbot waffles around in its response, advising people to enter into dialogue or call the police, but does not address the problem directly. Professor von Lewinski commented: "That was a case from real life", which is probably still causing difficulties for the AI. Another point in favour of the lawyer.
The duel ends 3:2 in favour of the human. He can live with the result, says Prof Dr von Lewinski, but is also certain that the result will no longer be sustainable in three or five years' time.
This text was machine-translated from German.
Professor Kai von Lewinski
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Kai von Lewinski is Professor of Public Law, Media Law and Information Law at the University of Passau and chairs the DFG-funded Research Training Group 1681/2 ‘Privacy and Digitalisation’. Prior to this, he was the Academic Director of the Foundation for Data Protection in Leipzig.
Professor Steffen Herbold
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Professor Steffen Herbold has held the Chair of AI Engineering at the University of Passau since 2022. Prior to his appointment as Professor of "Methods and Applications of Machine Learning" at Clausthal University of Technology, he had served as stand-in data analysis professor on various occasions, including at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He studied, completed his doctorate and earned his habilitation in computer science at Göttingen University.
