Chief Justice John Roberts devoted his year-end report on the federal courts to a rumination about the perils and promise of artificial intelligence, skirting entirely the ethics controversies that bedeviled the Supreme Court over the past year and the momentous role the court is set to play in the 2024 presidential election.

In the report issued Sunday, Roberts predicted that the judicial system “will be significantly affected by AI” as the technology is adopted by law firms, legal clients and judges themselves.

But the chief justice wrote that AI is a mixed bag for the legal profession and the courts, streamlining some tasks while creating dangers of fraud, discrimination and intrusions on privacy.