The Office of the Council of State (OCS) has partnered with Microsoft to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionise Thailand’s legal system.
The move may facilitate Thailand’s plan to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In the long term, the council wants to empower people by providing them with accessible legal information and tools, fostering greater public understanding and preventing misleading information.
The partnership launched the TH2OECD system, an AI-powered platform designed to help local officials navigate their way through OECD legal instruments and documents.
“We are using AI as a crucial tool to modernise Thailand’s legal system by analysing more than 70,000 Thai laws and more than 270 OECD legal instruments, as part of our efforts to join the OECD and enhance the country’s global competitiveness,” said Pakorn Nilprapunt, secretary-general of the OCS.
Co-developed by OCS and Thai AI service provider STelligence on the Microsoft Azure OpenAI platform, the system boasts powerful capabilities in analysing and comparing more than 70,000 Thai laws with 270 OECD legal instruments in real time.
The system supports bilingual processing in both Thai and English through automatic translation and leverages natural language processing (NLP) technology to detect legal discrepancies and recommend the fine-tuning of local content to be in line with the global legal standard.
By significantly reducing language-related barriers and enabling precise legal assessments, the system should help legal officials finish legal harmonisation within six months, compared with an 8 to 10-year period estimated previously.
“Human oversight is essential, and training the AI effectively requires input from experienced legal professionals,” said Mr Pakorn.
The OCS aspires to be a model for the development of AI-based legal translation systems and legal databases for countries where English is not an official language, he said.
Mr Pakorn said the first phase of the project development cost 4 million baht.
The OCS is entering the second phase with a budget of 11 million baht, focusing on creating a new legal search engine that can search through all Thai acts, royal decrees, and ministerial regulations.
This internal system will also integrate OCS’s own opinions on the law for deeper analysis.
The OCS and Microsoft signed a memorandum of understanding with the Secretariat of the Cabinet to jointly develop and implement an AI-powered database and information platform to support the administration of Thailand’s central government.
“The technology should enable us to work more efficiently in providing advice to government policies that conflict with the law or help us amend laws more quickly,” said Mr Pakorn.
It is crucial that AI-generated legal recommendations are handled with extreme caution and precision to avoid inaccuracies that could cause confusion or conflict, he said.
OCS advocates for “open government” and “open data” in the legal system, believing there is “nothing to hide”, except for national security secrets.
The OCS is also aiming for a single database for all legal information accessible to citizens, provided it respects privacy.
Benefits of AI
Jasmine Begum, regional director for legal & government affairs at Microsoft Asean, told the Bangkok Post that in Thailand OCS is recognised as being at the “forefront” of a progressive shift, moving away from analog policies to building digital frameworks from the ground up, aiming to create a future-proof legal system.
Ms Begum said AI holds the potential to address three critical areas within the legal system.
Firstly, it can make justice more accessible and expedite processes, a crucial benefit given the large volume of legislation and legal work involved.
AI’s capacity to process and analyse vast amounts of information can significantly speed up legal procedures and bridge existing gaps.
Secondly, AI can be a powerful tool for legislative drafting. It helps to draft laws faster and ensures that new regulations do not conflict with existing ones.
This analytical capability extends to helping with the analysis of outdated laws, potentially facilitating their review and reform.
Finally, AI can improve access to justice by making complex regulations easier for the general public to understand.
This demystification of legal language is vital for fostering greater public engagement and compliance. It necessitates a significant shift in the legal profession itself.
