Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Professional Organizations’ Joint Comment on Proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 707
Concerning Admissibility of Machine-Generated Evidence
February 16, 2026
We are civil liberties, civil rights, and professional organizations that have engaged in policy debates surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in various contexts. We are committed to ensuring that AI use does not exacerbate societal bias and civil liberties threats.
The Advisory Committee has proposed a Federal Rule of Evidence 707 that would govern the admissibility in federal courts of machine-generated information (which includes AI-generated information) based on the reliability of that information. Courts’ decisions to admit or exclude AI generated evidence can result in wrongful incarceration as well as significant liability. For example, use of AI-powered facial recognition systems has resulted in a number of wrongful arrests. This is a high-risk use of AI, and demands exacting scrutiny.
The proposed rule would apply to AI-generated evidence the rules of admissibility that currently apply to expert witness testimony in an existing rule of evidence, FRE 702. But the appropriate criteria for assessing the reliability of AI-generated evidence differ from the criteria for assessing the reliability of an expert witness’s testimony, making this an improper fit. For example, AI generated information is more reliable if the system that produced it was trained on unbiased data of high quality. Nothing in Rule 702 assesses the training data, which instead focuses on the knowledge and experience of the expert.
A rule governing the admissibility of AI-generated information in court proceedings is needed, and the Advisory Committee, to its credit, has taken up this challenging task. While it has held hearings and received testimony from a variety of witnesses with legal training, it has not yet heard from certain technical experts and people steeped in AI policy-making who could help it fashion a properly-focused rule.
We urge the Committee to reconsider the text of the proposed rule and to reach out to solicit additional input from a broader range of stakeholders. We would welcome the opportunity to more fully participate in its efforts to develop a new rule of evidence focused on AI-generated information.
Sincerely ACM U.S. Technology Policy Committee
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Center for Democracy & Technology
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Fight for the Future
UnidosUS
