Elsewhere on this site, I've mentioned receiving the wonderful honor of being the first chair of an exciting new committee of the American Bar Association, the national association of lawyers in the US. The committtee will address the legal issues of
“Artificial Intelligence and
Robotics.” We're going to have a listserv, some form of online publications, and plan to co-host webinars, teleconferences, and possibly a conference.
New in the fall of
2007, the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee will address all
aspects of law and devices that replicate or appear to replicate human mental or
physical activity – learning,
reasoning, communicating, manipulating objects, etc. The Committee’s
activities will be divided into two broad topic
categories:
1)
Law
about AI and Robotics – will
track changes in statute, regulation, and case law about, or which specifically
affect parties engaged in, artificial intelligence and robotics.
For example, one case
has addressed whether a person offering a particular piece of software was
offering an AI tool or practicing law without a license. We expect there will
be cases about who owns the results of machine learning – the maker or the buyer
– in both cases of advancement and liability. Similar questions will be asked
about robotic prostheses which combine robotics and wearer impulses. As AI and
robotics becomes more prevalent, we expect law-making bodies to seek to
regulate these activities – or their results. Just as “corporate law” is a lens
on the combination of contracts, torts, employment, and other topics in law, “AI
& Robotics” will necessarily draw from intellectual property, privacy,
contracts, liability, etc.
2)
Use
of AI and Robotics in legal activities – will address
advances such as automated contract drafting and interpretation, compliance
monitoring, and even law enforcement.
Although the use of
robots in government may sound far-fetched to the general public, there are many
efforts taking place in this arena. Just this week, the IEEE Robotics and
Automation Society in Boston is describing and demonstrating new
robotics for inspecting marine structures. And, the same folks who make home
vacuum cleaner robots are making bomb detection robots for the federal
government.
As technology
advances, the Committee will address the challenges posed by ever smarter and
more-dexterous machines that can
out-perform humans, or make decisions on behalf of humans. We expect that the
committee will touch on areas related to privacy, medical treatment and
healthcare, product liability, and perhaps more fleetingly, the question of
‘humanness’ in a
This Committee will
provide assistance to those advising technology companies, incorporating new
technologies into their practice, lawyers in technology roles, technologists
building legal tools, cross-disciplinary professors, and those who just want to
be ahead of the curve.
The homepage for the
Committee is at:
http://www.abanet.org/dch/committee.cfm?com=ST248008&edit=1&CFID=70893211&CFTOKEN=909f3fff9d5522e2-8758D883-C2B1-9621-7E534952BC914531&jsessionid=1a30274d649d1630413dTR
You can subscribe to the listserv there (look for
the small LISTSERV Lists box on the right side of the page below the Leadership
box).