The idea of using artificial intelligence as a support system in the sentencing process has attracted increasing attention. For instance, it has been suggested that machine learning algorithms may help in curbing problems concerning inter-judge sentencing disparity. The purpose of the present article is to examine the merits of this possibility. It is argued that, insofar as the unfairness of sentencing disparity is held to reflect a retributivist view of proportionality, it is not necessarily the case that increasing inter-judge uniformity in sentencing is desirable. More generally, it is shown that the idea of introducing machine learning algorithms, that produce sentencing predictions on the ground of a dataset that is built of previous sentencing decisions, faces serious problems if there exists a discrepancy between actual sentencing practice and the sentences that are ideally desirable.

在量刑过程中使用人工智能作为支撑系统的想法越来越受到关注。例如，有人建议机器学习算法可能有助于遏制有关法官间量刑差异的问题。本文的目的是检查这种可能性的优点。有人认为，就量刑差异的不公平性被认为反映了一种报复主义的相称性观点而言，在量刑中增加法官间的一致性并不一定是可取的。更一般地说，它表明引入机器学习算法的想法，该算法基于由先前量刑决定构建的数据集产生量刑预测，