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Posted by Max Berry
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4 September, 2025
ARTIFICIAL intelligence as an efficiency booster for international arbitration should be used with great caution, the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand’s 50th annual conference heard this week (September 4).
As noted by the United Nations back in April, AI is on course to become a $4.8 trillion global market by 2033 — roughly the size of Germany’s economy.
Independent arbitrator and mediator from ArbDB Chambers, Peter McQueen, told the conference in Melbourne that a set of guidelines has been issued by the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Centre to govern the use of AI in arbitration.
A key element is avoiding AI as a means of delegating decision making where “complex legal reasoning” is involved.
Mr McQueen acknowledged AI had been greeted with enthusiasm regarding case summaries and search functions.
Pointing to potential dangers, Mr McQueen opened his address with a clip from Stanley Kubrick’s iconic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey which he had seen as a child.
In the clip, robot Hal (an acronym for Heuristically ALgorithmic) refuses to open a pod door on his spacecraft against the instructions of his human master.
“This is a cultural warning and a relevant cautionary tale,” Mr McQueen said.
Matthew Harvey KC is a barrister who sits on a legal admission panel.
During a conference Q&A session, Mr Harvey described how one applicant had used ChatGPT in his application, evening citing a non-existent case.
The conference continues Friday (5 September) with presentations regarding marine insurance, the Limitation Convention and the cruise industry.
