As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) increases, so does the likelihood of its role in both civil and criminal proceedings. While AI is often conceived of as a computer which can match or exceed a human's performance in tasks requiring cognitive abilities, in fact it is just software. Software is generally admissible as evidence if it is relevant, material, and competent. However, AI differs from traditional software, perhaps requiring novel admissibility considerations.

More specifically, both traditional software and AI contain algorithms. Algorithms are procedures employed for solving a problem or performing a computation. Algorithms act as a step-by-step list of instructions specifying specific actions to be performed using either hardware or software-based routines. The fundamental difference with AI and traditional algorithms is that an AI can change its outputs based on new inputs, while a traditional algorithm will always generate the same output for a given input.

AI like traditional software may produce two types of evidence, namely computer records and computer generated evidence. Computer records do not require analysis or assumption by the programing, whereas computer generated evidence does. Computer records are generally print outs complied by a computer in a prescribed fashion from data. Computer generated evidence is computer output based on data and assumptions contained in a program.