When AI Recommends Your Sentence

In episode 16 of AI Ethics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna examine how artificial intelligence is being used to recommend sentencing lengths in criminal courts. They focus on a 2025 study from the University of Michigan analyzing over 200,000 sentencing recommendations from a tool used in four states. The hosts discuss how the model was trained on historical sentencing data that already reflected racial disparities, leading to recommendations that were on average 12 percent longer for Black defendants compared to white defendants with similar charges and prior records. They also explore the tension between efficiency and fairness, the lack of transparency in proprietary algorithms, and what judges and policymakers are doing to address the issue. A thought-provoking episode for anyone interested in the real-world consequences of AI in high-stakes decisions. #AIEthics #CriminalJustice #SentencingAI #AlgorithmicBias #RacialDisparity #PredictiveJustice #MichiganStudy #ProsecutorialTools #JudicialDiscretion #ExplainableAI #FairnessInAI #CriminalLaw #DataBias #LegalTech #CivilRights #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo