Applications of Artificial Intelligence in the Legal World
Applications of artificial intelligence are pervasive. It’s going to continue to be so in our modern world. As a lawyer, you have to be familiar with AI. You have to be familiar not only with what it is and the technical components of it but how it impacts the legal world.
In my experience, as a firm, we’ve noticed a tremendous shift in the autonomy of the world in general. The law’s trying to catch up. Here’s an example. We have to understand how to regulate autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots. Also, we have to understand the implications that arise from that. We have to construct statutory schemes at the federal level, the state level, and the local level. These statutes also have to be practical. So AI is coming and it’s here to stay and understanding it is of critical importance for any good lawyer.
Artificial Intelligence in Automated Vehicles
Applications of artificial intelligence in the automobile context is fascinating to me. I wrote an article about this last year. One of the interesting issues is, how do we handle liability issues? How do we handle those issues from an accident involving an autonomous vehicle? The software in an autonomous vehicle makes a determination about whom or what to hit. Do I hit another car or do I hit, for example, a pedestrian? That decision-making process, that’s profound.
At a legal level, we haven’t yet determined how do we handle the liability in that scenario. Is the liability the fault of the software developer? Or is the liability the fault of the manufacturer of the automobile? Is the liability in the fault of the owner of the automobile? Or is the liability in the fault of the pedestrian or the other vehicle involved in the accident? We have not yet addressed these profound regulatory questions. That’s part of the big concern that the regulators have with the speed of AI in the automotive world. And there are the consequences that flow from that.
Military Warfare Applications
AI in military warfare will likely take a certain direction. Also, developers will leave the decision-making components with autonomous vehicles. This is instead of humans, and I will give you an example. We have the development of robotic soldiers now. A lot of those robotic soldiers would be on a battlefield. They would have to make a split second determination whether to engage the enemy. Also, the must review the consequences of that.
At a very macro level, human beings can’t manage the speed it needs to make these decisions. So, developers will leave a lot of these decisions to the software algorithm. There can be a lot of international issues that arise out of that.
