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25 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 105 (2010)
Artificial Intelligence: Robots, Avatars, and the Demise of the Human Mediator

handle is hein.journals/ohjdpr25 and id is 107 raw text is: Artificial Intelligence: Robots, Avatars, and the Demise of the Human Mediator DAVID ALLEN LARSON* As technology has advanced, you may have wondered whether (or simply when) artificial intelligence devices will replace the humans who perform complex, interactive, interpersonal tasks such as dispute resolution. Has science now progressed to the point that artificial intelligence devices can replace human mediators, arbitrators, dispute resolvers, and problem solvers? Can humanoid robots, attractive avatars, and other relational agents create the requisite level of trust and elicit the truthful, perhaps intimate or painful, disclosures often necessary to resolve a dispute or solve a problem? This article will explore these questions. Regardless of whether the reader is convinced that the demise of the human mediator or arbitrator is imminent, one cannot deny that artificial intelligence now has the capability to assume many of the responsibilities currently being performed by alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practitioners. Artificial intelligence can be imbedded in a variety of physical forms. This article will focus primarily on robots designed to resemble humans and avatars. Robots can, of course, assume whatever form the designer desires, including human, animal, abstract, or strictly functional (as might be seen in an industrial enterprise). Artificial intelligence, however, does not need to be defined by a physical form. Much of what will be discussed in this article will be relevant to, and include, devices that do not have presence in the physical world.' Avatars, for example, initially were regarded as a graphic * Professor of Law, Senior Fellow and former Director, Dispute Resolution Institute, Hamline University School of Law. Professor Larson was a member of the American Bar Association's E-commerce and ADR Task Force, was one of the founders of the International Competition for Online Dispute Resolution, created the ADR and Technology course for Hamline University, and was a U.S. West Technology Fellow. He was the founder and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment, a Hearing Examiner for the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, an arbitrator for the Omaha Tribe, and currently serves as an independent arbitrator. He is a Qualified Neutral under Minnesota Supreme Court Rule 114, his other articles discussing Technology Mediated Dispute Resolution are available at http://ssm.com/author-709717, and he can be contacted at dlarson@hamline.edu. He thanks Jennifer Rottmann, third- year student at the Hamline University School of Law, for her insightful comments and excellent research assistance. 105

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