María Victoria Quiñones Triana, also referred to as Vicky Quiñones, made historical past earlier this 12 months by internet hosting Colombia’s first-ever courtroom listening to within the metaverse.

Quiñones, a Justice of the Peace on the administrative courtroom of Magdalena – within the northern Caribbean metropolis of Santa Marta i is understood for operating “one of the most disruptive courts in the country,” in the words of the president of Colombia’s criminal bar association, Francisco Bernante.

In an exclusive interview with Euronews Next, Quiñones spoke about her journey battling Colombia’s “paper tradition” and the future of justice using artificial intelligence (AI).

The 55-year-old hosted Colombia’s first-ever court hearing in the metaverse in February, but has been betting on the digital transformation of justice for almost 15 years.

Magdalena, the small town where Quiñones is based, has some particular geographical characteristics. “Almost all the municipalities are very far away; eight hours by car, six hours by car; the roads are not easy, you even have to cross rivers,” she said.

That remoteness inspired Quiñones to look into how technology could help democratise access to justice.

“We had a physical divide, so I thought we had to build digital bridges,” she said.

In 2012, Quiñones founded a website called ‘Despacho 01’ – which she still runs and funds – with the simple purpose of providing online jurisprudence for her court, starting with the digitisation of legal dossiers.

“I assumed it was horrible that individuals who lived in distant municipalities needed to take a bus for eight, six hours, simply to see a file. So we began telling them to scan their paperwork and ship them by electronic mail,” she defined.

Her courtroom then created a platform throughout the similar web site the place folks may entry the briefs with a code.

On the time, selling digital dossiers was “unthinkable,” she stated.

Across the similar 12 months, Quiñones began broadcasting her courtroom hearings on Youtube and permitting those that couldn’t attend courtroom proceedings to attend by way of a WhatsApp video name, “in order to guarantee the rights of all parties involved in the proceedings”.

“We were creating this culture of no paper (…) and actually there was the same or even more resistance than there is now to the metaverse,” she informed Euronews Subsequent.

Colombia’s first-ever courtroom listening to within the metaverse

Quiñones began fantasising in regards to the makes use of of the metaverse for her magisterial procedures shortly after the pandemic started.

“I started talking about it on my YouTube channel and suggesting it would be great if we could give it a try. Then one lawyer from an upcoming plaintiff proposed we did the hearing this way, and it was also accepted by the defendant. I was delighted”.

The problem with Groups, Zoom, WhatsApp and related platforms is that when you flip the digicam off, “it becomes a principle of good faith,” she stated. “You cannot confirm identities, and the sense of interaction completely disappears”.

The metaverse, then again, “has a very important sensory element to it, there is an immediate sense of closeness, similar to what we feel when we see each other in flesh and bones,” she explains.

“The identity verification process is also more thorough; there is even a voice recognition software”.

Quiñones hosted the authorized session in Horizon Workrooms 18, the free digital collaborative software developed by Meta. All events – legal professionals, clerks, defendants, plaintiffs, and many others – confirmed up within the metaverse utilizing their respective avatars (digital representations of folks that appear like a cartoon and which are sometimes utilized in digital worlds or on-line gaming).

Quiñones presided over the listening to in a digital courtroom designed to resemble a standard one. As soon as it began, the Justice of the Peace heard arguments from either side, reviewed proof, and made a ruling on the case.

The metaverse’s ‘enormous’ potential for the justice system

Past serving to out the individuals who can not bodily make it to a courtroom listening to, utilizing the metaverse may additionally assist those that can not deliver themselves to attend due to the emotional toll it could take.

For individuals who have lived trauma, for instance, resembling ladies or youngsters who’ve been victims of abuse, it’s typically troublesome to confront their aggressor.

“In the metaverse, I can create an environment where they feel safe to talk about what happened and confront their perpetrator without being afraid,” Quiñones stated.

The naysayers will ultimately give in, she added.

“Soon, the same judges who are reluctant to put on virtual reality (VR) glasses or even to examine digital dossiers will have to deal with intellectual property lawsuits within the same metaverse,” she predicted.

“In one way or another, life will find a way for us not to turn our backs on technology”.

What’s the way forward for justice?

“It certainly won’t be in the metaverse, at least not in Colombia’s immediate future,” stated Quiñones.

Colombia, as a lot as the remainder of South America, additionally has a poor Web infrastructure, “and none of the emerging technologies can be implemented without that basis,” she defined.

The nation’s judicial department remains to be working very arduous “to try to break the paradigm of digital and getting rid of paper, as well as improving the process to digitise the files and the platforms for their access,” she added.

However native constraints haven’t stopped Quiñones from persevering with to think about the way forward for the legislation. Most not too long ago, together with her workplace, the Justice of the Peace has been working to implement synthetic intelligence in sure procedures.

“I want to automate systems where I see that human interaction is not needed,” she stated.

To hurry up the method of approving injury claims, for instance, Quiñones is working to create “an automated, simple digital form in which people would answer questions related to their complaint and provide the relevant documents. Then AI could determine whether the lawsuit proceeds or not”.

This might assist cope with the issue of “the many people who sue for the sake of suing, and also to reduce the cost and time of the first round of legal services”.

Her administrative courtroom additionally used the AI giant language mannequin ChatGPT to elucidate the idea of the metaverse to the viewers of the February 15 listening to, which was streamed stay on Youtube and watched by greater than 68,000 folks.

However Quiñones’ major aim for the close to future is evident: “I hope we will help the world understand that technology not only helps to make friends, find boyfriends or buy shoes but also to serve justice”.