China embraces tech in its courtrooms

In China, it’s possible to do almost anything with WeChat: call a taxi, pay bills—even get one’s day in court.

Going to trial with WeChat-based courtroom mini-app Weisu (微诉) looks a lot like a Skype meeting: courtroom participants can join from the comfort of their couch. The mini program—which functions as an independent app but can be launched directly from the social platform—can verify their ID, submit court files, and have their testimonies transcribed by WeChat’s voice-to-text technology.

Weisu—developed by Chinese big data and AI company Gridsum—is part of a larger initiative to digitalize Chinese courts making them faster and more efficient—as well as collect big data. For now, the software is largely used in intellectual property litigation.

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