Artificial Intelligence and Law

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly developing. It is predicted that over the coming decade people will find AI technology in the home, office, business and general community on a large scale. It will pervade nearly every aspect of our lives. The world is seeing the transformation of AI technology being used by governments and the broader community for security. Over the past decade people only have to travel to the major airports around the world and through the central business districts of major cities to find AI surveillance at work. Today, AI can be found in many devices in our homes that we call “smart” because they operate in a more intelligent way, for example, smart phones, smart watches, robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers, self-driving cars, drones, etc. AI is very much used in robotics, technological industry, healthcare (in particular, medical diagnosing and surgery), transportation, military, video games, government and public administration, insurance, finance and economics, audit, advertising, art, amongst many others. Furthermore, it has been incrementally used in the area of law, such as predictive justice and the prediction of judicial decisions. This Chapter will discuss some of the issues emerging in this area of law and technology. It will demonstrate how there is a lack of a single definition of AI . The Chapter demonstrates that there is a lack of international agreement on what AI constitutes. This Chapter does not examine the international agreements or laws as to whether there has been some agreement or proposal put forward by states to clearly define what is and is not military AI . It demonstrates is how there has been little discussion or debate regarding how AI will meet the cur- rent day controls and protection of data protection [laws]. Moreover, this Chapter highlights how the emerging area of AI is going to challenge individuals across the community, particularly vulnerable groups such as children, those with a disability and elderly along with racial and ethnic groups. These cohorts are only beginning to be captured by AI technology, whereby the use of their personal data is not fully understood. The potential ramifications for bias and discrimination based on sex, ethnicity, religion, amongst others could be enormous. As AI evolves a more comprehensive study will be needed to better understand whether the developers of the technology have been successful in building adequate safeguards into the systems and platforms to protect personal data from illegal collection and use. It will also require confirmation of whether current trade-consumer practices law is adequate to regulate this at the point of sale of these devices, particularly in relation to protecting personal data.