Extract

In a discussion about the future direction of law and technology, some comparisons between humans and AI are worth making. Just as human intelligence consists of cognitive, motor, spatial, auditory, and other types of intelligence, so too does AI exhibit different types of intelligence. And just as humans perform a wide range of tasks, from general labor, delicate surgery, to decision making in different complex domains, so too are AI entities beginning to perform the same type of tasks. Thus, given advances in AI, and particularly machine learning, it is no surprise that AI is challenging many areas of law; these include contracts, torts, civil procedure, constitutional law, human rights law, commercial law, IP law, and so on.

It is also interesting to note that the law has been designed predominantly to handle disputes involving humans, that is, to regulate human conduct, and in a few instances, the actions of corporations (under the fiction of legal personhood). This last instance reflects the fact that the law has had to adapt to the realities of how businesses operate and how liability should be assigned to corporations. But so too will the law have to adapt to the use of increasingly intelligent and autonomous forms of AI. One area of change will be to reflect challenges to current law brought forth by the use of AI, another, albeit a more distant challenge, will be the issue of how the law should change to adapt to entities that may ultimately surpass...