Rituals of Machine Testimony

What would it mean for a machine to give evidence?

Rituals of Machine Testimony treats the courtroom not simply as an information-processing system but as a collection of procedures for making testimony accountable. Witnesses swear, remember, hesitate, retract and can be cross-examined. None of these actions transfers neatly to a generative model.

The paper develops speculative courtroom protocols for machine witnesses: declarations of model identity, provenance statements, repeated-question tests and rules governing generated hearsay. These devices expose a larger problem. Artificial testimony may be highly informative while leaving the court uncertain about who, if anyone, has actually testified.