The title, Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation, is slightly misleading. Rather than restate the existing law on AI, the editor and authors pull readers into a complex, thoroughly researched deep dive into the future of our legal and business systems.
The essays are predominantly written by a broad collection of experts, including attorneys working in emerging technologies, computer science professors, data scientists, IP experts, business law practitioners, fintech specialists, think-tank leaders, and AI consultants.
The total of these diverse perspectives, Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation, adopts a position that is at once more comprehensive, more sweeping, and more open-ended as to potential legal implications of AI than other texts on this topic. Readers may wonder how Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation compares to the Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence. The Research Handbook (also published by Elgar) was published in 2018 and was reviewed in this column in the Summer 2019 issue (International Journal of Legal Information 47, no. 2 [2019]: 122–23). Both titles present a kaleidoscopic overview of the implications of AI and the law across twenty-five chapters (Research Handbook) and thirty chapters (Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation). The similarities end there. The 2018 Research Handbook is a collection of essays written predominantly by legal academics, providing an overview of how existing legal structures and categories might treat AI developments. On the whole, it's more of a descriptive work than a prospective one. In contrast, Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation is a forward-looking analysis, offering a multifaceted perspective on the potential outcomes of the intersection of AI and legal frameworks.
In essence, while the Research Handbook is academic in nature, Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation is primarily for attorneys interested in in-depth technical insights from professionals in a variety of fields exploring where AI may be headed and how the law may evolve in response. The authors investigate the swirling expanse of possible AI trajectories and forecast how the law may adapt to (and be changed by) these developments. The difference in perspective is profound. Rather than dealing with AI by fitting it into existing legal structures, Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation delves into the possible legal spheres we could be addressing decades down the line as AI develops and law struggles to keep up. There is an urgency present in Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation, drawing our attention to unseen fault lines presented by AI that may break apart core existing legal concepts underpinning the common law.
Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation unfolds across five engaging sections. The first section provides a technical look at the history of AI and its current iterations. Part II looks at AI through the lenses of existing legal categories: corporate governance, regulatory compliance, commercial contracts, commercial trade, agency and liability, and data protection. It discusses AI and its implications generally, using examples from English and EU law. In Part II, the authors take up interesting questions about how AI will change the law. For instance, can AI eventually take over the role of directors and managers? What would this mean for corporate liability? The authors discuss challenges for regulators of different jurisdictions, including how AI might influence contract formation and how AI could augment business strategies in hedging and investment decisions. This section includes a fascinating chapter on AI in the commercial sphere and its legal implications.
Part III addresses AI in specific industries, providing an overview of applicable law and regulations (again, primarily English and EU law) and general obligations. These sections analyze potential avenues for AI in financial regulation, insurance, retail and consumer organizations, healthcare, telecoms/connectivity, and real estate. Each chapter illuminates industry-specific knowledge with AI implications. For instance, how might AI impact retail and commercial practices? If AI continues to usher in dynamic/personalized pricing, how would that interact with data protection and competition law? In healthcare, we get an overview of AI developments and potential growth in diagnostics, therapeutic options, clinical trials, and robotic surgery, all paired with possible legal challenges incurred by AI in these fields, both from regulatory and liability angles. Philosophically, these questions are bracing. With a common law legal system based on the concepts of rationality and due care, how might these concepts change with AI decision-making?
Part IV of the book examines the double-edged sword of technology shaped by our flawed humanity and includes chapters on ethics, bias and discrimination, public policy and government, and education.
The final section, Part V: Technical and Consulting, is written by AI experts but focuses on business subjects of interest to attorneys. These chapters delve into the taxonomy of AI, automation and fairness, risk management, business models, transparent and responsible AI, and legal tech innovations.
On the whole, Artificial Intelligence: Law and Regulation is a substantive and engaging work with a unique set of perspectives on the current and future state of AI and the law. It would be helpful for any attorney interested in AI's commercial law implications. Additionally, its forward-looking perspective makes it an essential resource for anyone interested in the evolving intersection of law and AI.
One of the book's main contentions is that since AI will have a transformative effect on so many of our processes, it can't be considered through the lenses of specific legal practice areas without getting a distorted vision of the technology itself. The book delves deeply into the potential of AI and, given its distinct contours, explores how the legal system may adapt (or be utterly ill-equipped) to deal with it.
