A yearlong effort to build an AI probate assistant reveals the limits of government chatbot development.

Dealing with a loved one’s belongings after their death is never easy. But as Alaska’s state courts have discovered, an inaccurate or misleading artificial intelligence chatbot can easily make matters worse.

For more than a year, Alaska’s court system has been designing a pioneering generative AI chatbot termed the Alaska Virtual Assistant (AVA) to help residents navigate the tangled web of forms and procedures involved in probate, the judicial process of transferring property away from a deceased person.

Yet what was meant to be a quick, AI-powered leap forward in increasing access to justice has spiraled into a protracted, yearlong journey plagued by false starts and false answers.