EU-backed PNRR funds equip 1,000 courtrooms in Romania with AI transcribers

Funded through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), the project was carried out over 32 months.

As part of the project, the Ministry of Justice developed the OPTIMUS platform, which manages the entire process, from capturing and recording sound to processing and transcribing it, identifying speakers, and storing information. Through the implemented solution, audio recordings made in courtrooms can be automatically converted into text using speech-to-text technology, reducing the time required for manual transcription.

One of the platform’s components, OPTIMUS ASR, uses artificial intelligence for automatic transcription and identification of the people speaking during hearings.

The system also includes OPTIMUS Recorder, intended for audio recording, an interface for accessing and managing the platform’s functions, and a component for managing and displaying information about court hearings. The platform is also connected to ECRIS, the IT system through which court case files are managed.

According to the Ministry of Justice, under optimized processing conditions, the automatic transcription component can achieve performance of up to 100 times real time, allowing large volumes of audio content to be processed nationwide.

Implementation began with a pilot project in six courtrooms, where the technical solutions were tested, and the final configuration was established. Subsequently, the system was expanded nationwide.

Currently, 245 judicial institutions and 1,023 courtrooms and chambers are equipped with the necessary infrastructure and integrated into the OPTIMUS platform.

The platform is hosted in the data centers of the Ministry of Justice, which allows the institution to maintain control over the data and further develop the system, ministry representatives said.