Artificial intelligence

What’s New? April 2024

EU AI Act passed The European Parliament approved the Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) on 13 March 2024. It has been hailed as the world’s first comprehensive and binding piece of legislation on AI, although many of its provisions won’t be enforced for at least a year or two. Rather than attempting to regulate specific technologies, […]

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Copyright and copywriting: AI challenges

Since ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022, countless articles have been written about how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) will improve the efficiency of white collar workers, including legal professionals, and perhaps eventually lead to job losses. Ironically, it’s the very people writing about the revolutionary potential of this technology who have been […]

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Artificial Intelligence Contractual Clauses from SCL

The SCL AI Group have released their Artificial Intelligence Contractual Clauses document which is free to access and share under a Creative Commons Licence. The development and use of AI will increase significantly over the next few years. AI systems will therefore increasingly become the subject matter of transactional contracts. AI technologies create new and unique risks which will […]

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Generative AI and access to justice

It’s been almost a year since ChatGPT was released to the public back in November 2022. Although much has been written about the impact of generative AI on the legal sector as a whole, there has been less focus on its potential to improve access to justice for the ordinary citizen who cannot afford a […]

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Global AI regulation

In the wake of an avalanche of publicity following the hugely successful roll-out of ChatGPT, governments around the world have been waking up to the transformative effects of generative AI tools upon their societies, economies and legal systems. Stark warnings from leading industry figures such as Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Geoffrey Hinton, about the […]

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ChatGPT: more questions

Following his recent article on ChatGPT’s implications for the legal world, Alex Heshmaty garners answers to further questions from Dr Ilia Kolochenko. Who owns the copyright of ChatGPT responses? This now-rapidly evolving question is largely unsettled among jurisdictions, in most cases probably no-one. Is it possible for original copyright holders to prevent ChatGPT (or Bard) […]

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A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation

The Government recently published a White Paper, “A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation,” setting out its proposals for AI regulation, in conjunction with an impact assessment and consultation paper. Jo Frears, IP & Technology Leader at Lionshead Law, considers some of the key points. The meaning of “AI” The White Paper acknowledges that there is […]

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Harnessing innovative technologies to meet future challenges

A new joint report entitled A New National Purpose, which explores how the UK can harness innovative technologies to meet future challenges, has recently been published by Tony Blair and William Hague. The “cross-party” report argues that we are currently undergoing a new form of Industrial Revolution “as developments in artificial intelligence (AI), biotech, climate […]

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ChatGPT: implications for the legal world

Chatbots have been around since the 1960s and coders have been trying to pass the Turing test ever since, creating increasingly sophisticated iterations of natural language processing (NLP) software. A recent episode, where a Google engineer was sacked for claiming that the search engine’s chatbot generator software known as LaMDA was sentient, perhaps demonstrates the […]

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AI legal technology: fact vs fiction

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term which is routinely bandied about in discussions about legal technology. Companies selling software to the legal sector almost ubiquitously proclaim that their products are “powered with AI” in their marketing literature. But is this apparent meteoric rise of AI within legal tech of any real consequence, or is it […]

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Accountability for algorithms

Sometimes it is hard to remember that law goes on being made during pandemics, just as it does during wars and in economic crises. The laws made now whilst we battle with the ethical and economic impact of possible further lock-downs and social distancing measures, is intended to regulate future activities, even if we can’t […]

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ICLR.4 and the genie in the bottle

Some years ago the editor of this Newsletter complained of the over-use of the description “artificial intelligence” in legal products: “hyping AI is unhelpful”, he said. “AI is just what computers do.” And he’s not alone in expressing scepticism about the often extravagant claims of AI. Much of the mystique around it stems from simple […]

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