Brazilian government has partnered with OpenAI to enhance the screening and analysis of thousands of lawsuits using artificial intelligence (AI) in a move to mitigate costly court losses.
The AI technology, provided through Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing platform, will assist the Brazilian government by flagging the need for action on lawsuits before final decisions are made, mapping trends, and identifying potential action areas for the Solicitor General’s Office (AGU). This initiative aims to preemptively address legal challenges, potentially saving substantial sums for the federal budget.
AGU confirmed the collaboration with Microsoft to Reuters but did not disclose the financial details of the agreement.
The rising burden of court-ordered debt payments has significantly strained Brazil’s federal budget. For the upcoming year, the government anticipates spending 70.7 billion reais ($13.2 billion) on judicial decisions that are beyond appeal, excluding smaller claims that typically total around 30 billion reais annually.
This combined expenditure of over 100 billion reais marks a significant increase from 37.3 billion reais in 2015, equating to about 1 percent of Brazil’s gross domestic product and 15 percent more than projected spending on unemployment insurance and wage bonuses for low-income workers.
Although AGU did not elaborate on the reasons behind Brazil’s escalating court costs, the office emphasized that the AI project is designed to augment, not replace, the work of its staff. “It will help them gain efficiency and accuracy, with all activities fully supervised by humans,” AGU stated.
In support of these initiatives, the Planning Ministry allocated 25 million reais in supplementary credits to AGU in March, aimed at implementing strategic information technology projects.
