WEBVTT

NOTE
Jane's Ticket: a film about Superjustice. Captions for the narration.

1
00:05.410 --> 00:06.750
This is Jane.

2
00:06.790 --> 00:13.030
Spotless record, new in town, and holding
a parking ticket she believes is unfair.

3
00:13.070 --> 00:14.800
The sign was unclear.

4
00:14.840 --> 00:17.830
So she does what a careful person does.

5
00:17.870 --> 00:19.430
She contests it.

6
00:19.470 --> 00:23.430
Hours on the phone, passed from one
department to the next.

7
00:23.470 --> 00:25.950
A written appeal, rejected.

8
00:25.990 --> 00:30.530
Then a day off work, and a court a few
hours' drive away.

9
00:30.640 --> 00:36.210
Follow her ticket, and you meet ten things
that are wrong with far more than parking.

10
00:36.250 --> 00:41.790
It costs too much: time, money, and
energy, for a small dispute.

11
00:41.830 --> 00:43.810
It is too far away.

12
00:43.850 --> 00:48.050
The rule has no room for a newcomer and a
confusing sign.

13
00:48.090 --> 00:52.760
And her ticket may be pursued while others
like it are let go.

14
00:52.810 --> 00:56.830
The system resists the tools that would
have prevented all this.

15
00:56.870 --> 01:00.190
It ignores what could be known in real
time.

16
01:00.230 --> 01:01.860
It is slow.

17
01:01.900 --> 01:07.020
It is opaque: Jane never learns who has
her case, or when it will end.

18
01:07.060 --> 01:10.040
And a few people decide for everyone.

19
01:10.090 --> 01:11.580
Jane kept going.

20
01:11.620 --> 01:14.600
Most people would pay the fine and give
up.

21
01:14.640 --> 01:16.680
None of this is an accident.

22
01:16.720 --> 01:22.280
All ten grow from two roots: a system run
from the centre, and work that takes

23
01:22.320 --> 01:24.500
expensive expert time.

24
01:24.550 --> 01:26.520
So run it again.

25
01:26.560 --> 01:31.190
Jane photographs the sign and asks her AI
agent to appeal.

26
01:31.230 --> 01:34.270
A prompt, transparent decision comes back.

27
01:34.310 --> 01:38.983
If the sign really was unclear, the fine
is dismissed, or cut to fit her

28
01:39.023 --> 01:40.390
circumstances.

29
01:40.430 --> 01:42.820
Either way, she knows why.

30
01:42.860 --> 01:43.890
Same Jane.

31
01:43.930 --> 01:45.020
Same ticket.

32
01:45.060 --> 01:46.780
A different design.

33
01:52.367 --> 01:53.987
This is Sarah.

34
01:54.027 --> 01:59.407
Every morning she is woken by the birds in
her neighbour Tom's old oak tree.

35
01:59.447 --> 02:01.897
Its branches hang over her garden.

36
02:02.027 --> 02:04.127
She asks Tom to trim it.

37
02:04.187 --> 02:07.297
Tom loves the birds, and the shade.

38
02:07.337 --> 02:08.727
He says no.

39
02:08.767 --> 02:14.377
She offers to split the cost, tries
mediation, suggests birdhouses.

40
02:14.417 --> 02:15.857
Nothing works.

41
02:15.897 --> 02:22.627
And a lawyer, steep fees, and months of
delay, for a few branches, feels absurd.

42
02:22.737 --> 02:24.727
You may side with Sarah.

43
02:24.767 --> 02:26.147
Or with Tom.

44
02:26.187 --> 02:30.347
Either way, neither can get an answer
worth its cost.

45
02:30.567 --> 02:35.978
Law became centralized for good reasons:
one authority, and the same rules for

46
02:36.018 --> 02:37.247
everyone.

47
02:37.397 --> 02:40.617
But there is another way: a hybrid.

48
02:40.657 --> 02:45.407
Keep the centre for the principles and
rights that must hold everywhere.

49
02:45.447 --> 02:49.367
Move everyday disputes closer to the
people in them.

50
02:49.407 --> 02:54.737
So Sarah tells her AI agent what she
wants: quiet mornings.

51
02:54.777 --> 02:57.207
Tom's agent protects his tree.

52
02:57.247 --> 03:02.865
Bargaining through agents costs far less,
so they find what the neighbours never

53
03:02.905 --> 03:05.477
did: a price both can accept.

54
03:05.517 --> 03:08.497
Sarah would pay up to $300.

55
03:08.537 --> 03:12.477
Tom would take $250 to trim certain
branches.

56
03:12.517 --> 03:14.657
And if it has to be decided?

57
03:14.697 --> 03:18.597
Where the rule is clear, an answer comes
in minutes.

58
03:18.637 --> 03:24.467
Where it is vague, arbitrators from their
own community weigh in, and it takes days.

59
03:24.507 --> 03:25.647
Not months.

60
03:25.687 --> 03:28.477
They might settle on trimming part of the
tree.

61
03:28.517 --> 03:31.307
Or on keeping the birds at a distance.

62
03:31.397 --> 03:36.257
One more question: who speaks for the
birds, and for the oak?

63
03:36.397 --> 03:42.080
And the centre still stands: rights no
local majority can override, a right to

64
03:42.120 --> 03:47.417
appeal, and an agent provided for anyone
who cannot pay for one.

65
03:47.537 --> 03:50.617
Sarah and Tom are still neighbours.

66
03:55.453 --> 03:57.323
It is 2050.

67
03:57.363 --> 04:02.293
An entrepreneur accuses a global tech
company of stealing an invention.

68
04:02.333 --> 04:05.403
Two AI agents argue the case.

69
04:05.443 --> 04:09.083
An AI arbitrator decides it in seconds.

70
04:09.123 --> 04:11.083
To some, a marvel.

71
04:11.123 --> 04:13.383
To others, unsettling.

72
04:13.523 --> 04:15.363
Who chose its values?

73
04:15.403 --> 04:18.813
Can anyone ask a human to look again?

74
04:18.853 --> 04:21.093
Those are the right questions.

75
04:21.133 --> 04:25.063
A faster version of the old system is not
the goal.

76
04:25.183 --> 04:27.773
So here is a way to tell the difference.

77
04:27.813 --> 04:33.355
It borrows a name from gene editing:
CRISPR, a tool that fixes one fault

78
04:33.395 --> 04:36.813
precisely and leaves the rest intact.

79
04:36.853 --> 04:41.003
CRISPR-J asks six things of any redesign.

80
04:41.043 --> 04:43.483
Hold them against Jane's ticket.

81
04:43.523 --> 04:45.953
Did it cost her less than the fine?

82
04:45.993 --> 04:48.123
Was it settled the same day?

83
04:48.163 --> 04:50.503
Did it make room for a newcomer?

84
04:50.543 --> 04:52.943
Did it use the photo of the sign?

85
04:52.983 --> 04:55.733
Was the sign fixed for the next driver?

86
04:55.773 --> 04:59.553
And will it stay fair as things change?

87
04:59.593 --> 05:01.643
None of this is a cure-all.

88
05:01.683 --> 05:07.183
AI learns from the past, and can repeat
its biases, or enlarge them.

89
05:07.223 --> 05:10.403
It can cite a case that does not exist.

90
05:10.443 --> 05:12.783
So people stay at the centre.

91
05:12.823 --> 05:17.773
There is a right to appeal, and human
oversight where the stakes are high.

92
05:17.843 --> 05:22.043
The book behind this film ends by turning
the question around.

93
05:22.083 --> 05:24.993
Not: what will AI do to law?

94
05:25.033 --> 05:27.893
But: what do we want it to do?

95
05:28.063 --> 05:31.073
That takes will, more than technology.

96
05:31.113 --> 05:35.243
From justice that is scarce to justice
that is abundant.

97
05:35.283 --> 05:39.093
By humans, for humans, with AI.

98
05:39.133 --> 05:41.633
The book is Superjustice.