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Véliz: Probabilistic justice allows bad actors to evade accountability easily

Carissa Véliz · Are We Too Obsessed With AI Predictions? — With Carissa Véliz · Apr 22, 2026 · at 30:07

Oxford philosopher Carissa Véliz argues that shifting legal decisions and litigation funding toward statistical odds undermines principled justice.

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“When we make the justice system about probabilities, we're losing its principled approach. And so you make it very easy for the bad guys to get away with it, because you don't have to make it impossible for people to challenge you, or even very hard. You just have to make it slightly unlikely for them to win. And then you get scot-free.”

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