‘Arelatively new Manchester boutique has turned to AI to ‘supercharge’ the probate process – and is so confident at how quickly it can move that it is willing to write off its fixed fee for applications not submitted in six weeks.’ Link: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/firm-deploys-ai-to-supercharge-probate-process/5121502.article

‘The New Legislative Framework (NLP) approach, which limits legislation to broad ‘principles’ developed upon by technical standards, has focused primarily on developing standards for the protection of health and safety. The AI Act takes this approach in a novel direction. By seeking to also protect fundamental rights (including rights to non-discrimination and equality), standards propose a novel…

‘The Danish welfare authority, Udbetaling Danmark (UDK), risks discriminating against people with disabilities, low-income individuals, migrants, refugees, and marginalized racial groups through its use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to flag individuals for social benefits fraud investigations, Amnesty International said today in a new report.’ Link: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/11/denmark-ai-powered-welfare-system-fuels-mass-surveillance-and-risks-discriminating-against-marginalized-groups-report/

‘Ross McNairn, the CEO and Founder of Wordsmith AI, the main sponsor of the Society’s Annual Conference showcased how AI can save professionals time by streamlining and expediting tasks.’ Link: https://lawscot.org.uk/members/journal-hub/articles/the-ai-advantage-is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-repetitive-work

‘The advent of AI has generated remarkable interest in the legal sector. A new ‘faith’ in the transformative power of AI has emerged among law practitioners. According to this new religion, AI would significantly improve the law and the legal profession thanks to automation and the ensuing gains. This development has a messianic taste insofar…

‘Did this really happen? Did they really say that? The emergence of deepfakes, which are videos, audio or images generated by artificial intelligence to mimic real people have quickly evolved from a novel technological curiosity to a sophisticated tool pushing the bounds of what is ethically and legally acceptable.’ Link: https://www.lewissilkin.com/en/insights/is-this-for-real-the-legal-reality-behind-deepfakes

‘The use of computational tools to predict academic success has become increasingly popular. Machine learning algorithms, trained on past study histories, have been shown to provide valid predictions. However, knowing about biases and unfairness in algorithms, one should take a closer look at these predictions. This paper explores the extent to which the predictive accuracy…

‘Amidst concerns over biased and misguided government decisions arrived at through algorithmic treatment, it is important for members of society to be able to perceive that public authorities are making fair, accurate, and trustworthy decisions. Inspired in part by equity and procedural justice theories and by theories of attitudes towards technologies, we posited that the…

‘In a world increasingly shaped by digital transformation, AI and data science present new opportunities to change policymaking in nearly all areas of policy.’ Link: https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player?id=17b36fbc-73ec-468a-9634-59bc526841a2

‘Artificial Intelligence systems are used more and more nowadays, from the application of decision support systems to autonomous vehicles. Hence, the widespread use of AI systems in various fields raises concerns about their potential impact on human safety and autonomy, especially regarding fair decision-making. In our research, we primarily concentrate on aspects of non-discrimination, encompassing…

‘AI-based language tools such as ChatGPT have the potential to fundamentally change studying and teaching at universities. Since there have been few empirical studies on the use of AI systems by students, this article aims to analyze the use of AI in higher education. In particular, it focuses on identifying features that are important to…

‘Subscribers can search their chat history now, with the feature being added for free users soon.’ Link: https://lifehacker.com/tech/search-through-your-chatgpt-conversation-history

‘Legal contracts are essential for businesses because they document expectations and specific conditions for a business arrangement. However, managing the contract lifecycle can become overly time-consuming because of slow drafting and negotiation processes, inefficient storage and retrieval systems, limited oversight mechanisms, and communication challenges.’ Link: https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/technology/can-ai-write-legal-contracts/#contract-automation-tools

‘KeyCrime was a first of its kind, a company dedicated to using Artificial Intelligence to identify recurring patterns in serial crime. The European Union’s AI Act, however, dealt the project a mortal blow. But the idea lives on.’ Link: https://algorithmwatch.org/en/predictive-policing-pioneer-keycrime/

‘The European Union (“EU”) has taken the remarkable step of coming to agreement to implement the first-of-its-kind comprehensive legislation regarding artificial intelligence (“AI”), the AI Act. The AI Act adopts a risk-based approach to address diverse AI system applications and potential harms associated with AI technology. The AI Act categorizes AI systems based on risk…

‘This article analyses the limits of legal norms and institutions in holding to account the emerging power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning. It demonstrates how a symbiosis of capitalism and new forms of digital power is mutating to produce novel and dangerous styles of organised irresponsibility that go beyond the reach of conventional…

‘Facing the fast-growing development of AI across the globe, particularly Generative AI (GenAI), the G7 competition authorities and policymakers (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the UK and the US) and the European Commission met in Italy on 3-4 October 2024 to discuss the main competition challenges raised by these new technologies in digital markets. The Joint…

‘The ICO have carried out consensual audit engagements with developers and providers of artificial intelligence (AI) powered sourcing, screening, and selection tools used in recruitment. We recognise that the use of AI tools in recruitment processes can offer benefits to employers, but their use can also lead to risks for people and their privacy and…

‘In June 2024, the new EU AI Act came into force. The AI Act includes obligations for the provider of an AI system. Article 10 of the AI Act includes a new obligation for providers to evaluate whether their training, validation and testing datasets meet certain quality criteria, including an appropriate examination of biases in…

‘Popular AI image-generating systems notoriously tend to amplify harmful biases and stereotypes. But just how big a problem is it? You can now see for yourself using interactive new online tools. (Spoiler alert: it’s big.)’ Link: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/22/1070167/these-news-tool-let-you-see-for-yourself-how-biased-ai-image-models-are

‘The publication of a monograph by Dr Luca Siliquini-Cinelli on the history of scientia iuris in which he argues that law is a constructed form of knowledge that differs from experience is not just an important and very learned contribution to historical jurisprudence. The book’s thesis is also making an important contribution to the debate about the…

‘Conversations about algorithms and fairness can overlook the bifurcation of justice. Whilst distributive justice is integral to accountability for algorithmic bias and related harms, without procedural justice and ‘voice’, defined as consent, transparency, and a right to be heard, algorithmic decisions will fail to find legitimacy and acceptance. Fairness metrics respond better to distributive justice…

‘As robots are increasingly found in various aspects of human life, understanding how humans relate to and interact with robots is becoming more relevant. One important factor affecting the quality of human-robot interactions is trust, and in recent years there has been an increase in scientific interest in the nature of trust between humans and…

‘The Canadian Legal Information Institute, better known as CanLII, has sued a newly launched company that describes itself as an artificial intelligence-driven legal research assistant, alleging the company poached its content and is offering it to users who pay a monthly subscription fee.’ Link: https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/resources/legal-technology/canlii-sues-ai-legal-assistant-caseway-ai-for-copyright-infringement/389633

‘It was a stranger who first brought home for me how big this year’s vibe shift was going to be. As we waited for a stuck elevator together in March, she told me she had just used ChatGPT to help her write a report for her marketing job. She hated writing reports because she didn’t…

‘Two of the forces that have most shaped the landscape in higher education over the last few years have been sustainability on one hand and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the other. Bringing these phenomena together, this article examines the multifaceted sustainability challenges posed by integrating AI into legal education. The integration of AI into legal education has promised…

‘Workers are increasingly embracing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimise various aspects of their operations in the workplace. While AI offers new opportunities, it also presents unintended challenges that they must carefully navigate. This paper aims to develop a deeper understanding of workers’ experiences with interactions with automated agents (AA) in the workplace and provide actionable…

‘Legal theory can address two related key problems of alignment: pluralism and specification. Alignment researchers must determine how to specify what is concretely meant by vague principles like helpfulness and fairness and they must ensure that their techniques do not exclude alternative perspectives on life and values. The law faces these same problems. Leading legal…

‘The European Union (EU) stands as a pioneer in the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), setting a global benchmark with its proactive approach to ensuring ethical and responsible AI development. Indeed, it seems we may witness a new Brussels effect, reminiscent of the influence wielded by the GDPR. The EU’s comprehensive and precautionary framework prioritises…

‘More than two thirds of lawyers say that professional bodies such as the Law Society should take responsibility for regulating the use of artificial intelligence in law – though 18% say that the government should have a role too. The findings emerge from the 2024 Future of Professionals report by legal information giant Thomson Reuters,…

‘AI will make legal services more accessible and affordable but it cannot take the place of legal advice or personal relationships and professional interactions, says Richard Atkinson.’ Link: https://www.cityam.com/ai-powered-law-must-make-justice-fair-and-equal-for-all/

‘Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to concerns about its potential misuse in education. As large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Bard can generate human-like text, researchers and educators noted the potential redundancy of tasking students with writing academic essays. We aimed to explore if the two LLMs could generate unstructured…

‘The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has sparked debates across various professions, including librarianship. This article explores whether AI can replace librarians by examining the essential skills required for the profession and evaluating the extent to which AI can replicate these skills. AI has the capacity to replace database searching skills but may struggle to…

‘The recently adopted Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) of the European Union (EU) claims to be based on a risk-based approach to avoid over-regulation and to respect the principle of legislative proportionality. This paper argues that risk-based regulation is indeed the right approach to AI regulation. At the same time, however, the paper shows that…

‘AI is ‘the defining technology of our generation’ according to a recent joint statement by the UK and US governments. We all understand that it is likely to impact library and information work profoundly, so it is important to try and be more than reactive and think strategically about the opportunities and problems it is…

‘Like the Metaverse and NFTs before it, it feels near impossible to follow tech news right now without hearing about AI. I understand it can get annoying: The tech is still in development, and everyone’s still figuring out the ethics of generating AI Art, or how to make it not suck. Then, there are the tech CEOs that promise big changes…

‘Scrraaape! The World Wide Web is creaking under the action of web crawling bots moving from server to server, harvesting data to take back to their hives where hungry generative AI models await.’ Link: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/commentary-and-opinion/great-e-scrape-clarity-needed-over-generative-ai-training/5121343.article

‘As a powerful and rapidly advancing dual-use technology, AI offers both immense benefits and worrisome risks. In response, governing bodies around the world are developing a range of regulatory AI laws and policies. This paper compares three distinct approaches taken by the EU, China and the US. Within the US, we explore AI regulation at…

‘This article examines the role of human agency within two competing regulatory paradigms: law and technological management. It sketches both paradigms and suggests that the direction of regulatory travel in familiar jurisdictions is from the former towards the latter. It then examines the possible effect of this transition upon human agency. It defends a general…

‘In late October, News Corp filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, a popular AI search engine. At first glance, this might seem unremarkable. After all, the lawsuit joins more than two dozen similar cases seeking credit, consent, or compensation for the use of data by AI developers. Yet this particular dispute is different, and it might be…

‘A few weeks from now, ChatGPT — the chatbot that propelled generative artificial intelligence into the mainstream — will celebrate its second anniversary.’ Link: https://www.ft.com/content/8dbeecee-c242-4b22-987b-96b492f27d1e

‘The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research holds promising benefits as well as potential threats. In a fascinating webinar titled Research integrity and AI: Navigating challenges and leveraging potential, Springer Nature’s Director of Research Integrity, Chris Graf, discusses research integrity, AI tools to detect fraudulent manuscripts, and the importance of collaboration in combating scientific…

‘In early 2020, the New York Times reported that ‘a little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images’. It was revealed that this start-up, Clearview AI, was operating a facial recognition app that could find the public photos of individuals when a picture of them is uploaded on it, thanks…

‘The analysis of liability aspects facing Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’)-generated outputs under copyright and related rights has been overlooked compared to other issues connected to the development and use of AI. This study fills this gap by exploring pertinent questions under international, EU and UK law. Specifically, the study tackles actionable reproduction, allocation of liability, and…

‘In this Q&A, MIT researchers discuss the proper use of AI in schools and policy recommendations for effective learning.’ Link: https://openlearning.mit.edu/news/what-you-need-know-about-ai-classroom

‘Uncertainty around AI takes different shapes and forms, but we can boil it down to three main categories that every manager should consider: state, effect and response uncertainty. State uncertainty occurs when managers lack sufficient information to predict market trends and changes.’ Link: https://hbr.org/2024/10/a-toolkit-to-help-you-manage-uncertainty-around-ai

‘ChatGPT can now search the web for up-to-date answers to a user’s queries, OpenAI announced today.’ Link: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/31/1106472/chatgpt-now-lets-you-search-the-internet/