Jeffrey Vagle (Georgia State University College of Law), AI Agnotology, Cognitive Surrender, and Policing Accountability, 79 Stan. L. Rev. Online ___ (forthcoming 2026) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The use of AI tools tends to obfuscate rather than illuminate knowledge about the problems we task them to solve, encourages users to defer to the tool as a heuristic replacement for their own professional judgement, and leads people to ascribe an elevated level of expertise and even agency to the software as an unbiased observer. This combination is a recipe for reduced accountability for the inevitable errors these tools will produce, an especially acute problem in law enforcement. This Essay argues that law enforcement uses of AI technologies have become a means of avoiding police accountability, both consciously and unconsciously, as reliance on these technologies can actually reduce internal and external understanding of relevant facts, plays into our natural inclinations toward automation bias, and encourages succumbing to the convenience of automation over the often difficult work of human judgment.
Recommended!
To receive new posts from Legal Theory Blog by email, get a free subscription to Legal Theory Stack.
Lawrence Solum