SAN FRANCISCO — There are many complicated issues that undoubtedly weigh on the mind of California Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar. But the notion that super-intelligent robots might one day destroy humanity is apparently not one of them.

In a far-ranging panel discussion about artificial intelligence and the law at the annual Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, Cuéllar was critical of a book by philosopher Nick Bostrom about the existential threat to humanity posed by self-aware machines. But the justice also laid out what he said were the promises and risks presented by AI, in the realm of law and beyond.

He was joined by experts such as Yann LeCun, director of AI research at Facebook Inc. and Kate Crawford, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research. Also speaking on the panel were University of Washington School of Law professor Ryan Calo, Tim Hwang from Google Inc.'s public policy division and William Santana Li from robo-security company Knightscope Inc.