AI and Robotics National Institute 2022 Recap
On October 10 and 11, 2022, the American Bar Association held its fourth annual Artificial Intelligence and Robotics National Institute. Due to COVID the program was online. 2022 presented speakers with plenty of legal issues to tackle in the area of AI and robotics. Once again, I served as Chair of the Institute.
Keynote speakers included:
Hon. Ro Khanna, U.S. representative from California’s 17th Congressional District. Rep. Khanna spoke about legislative accomplishments and future AI legislation.
Hon. Michael Chertoff, Senior Counsel at Covington & Burling and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. He presented on AI as a high-tech weapon in information warfare.
Prof. J. Christian Gerdes, Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Automotive Research and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Prof. Gerdes addressed the state of autonomous driving technology and the role of law and ethics in governing automated driving and advanced driver assistance systems.
Hon. James E. Baker, Professor of Law and Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse and former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Judge Baker talked about national security AI and regulation, moving from abstract principles to practice in th next decade.
Data Protection: The first panel covered privacy and security issues in regulating AI. This panel talked about how different data protection laws now cover AI. The panelistsl summarized GDPR’s right of explanation of the results of automated data processing and the right of human intervention and how these concepts are influencing U.S. legal approaches. The panel also explored the overlap between privacy principles in common frameworks and AI governance frameworks. Finally, the panel presented emerging legislative data protection initiatives that could affect the future of AI and provide strategies for dealing with the AI regulations already hiding in plain sight.
Big Data Legal Issues: The second panel described Big Data legal issues, especially in connection with training machine learning systems. It covered legal and ethical risks of ubiquitous health data processing. Also, the panel will present best practices for reliable collection, cleansing, checking, and managing data for machine learning systems. Examples include promoting machine learning reliability “by design,” and the use of de-identification, anonymization, aggregation, and tokenization as mechanisms to reduce data risks, especially in healthcare.
Web3, Blockchain, and NFTs: This panel tackled the meta verse, how it evolved, and new models for the worldwide web. The panel talked about the legal implications of a decentralized web architecture, including data governance and standardizations. Finally, the panel explored some common use cases relating to ownership of decentralized data and mitigation of legal risk: token-based economics and regulation (finance) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as data wallets.
AI Governance in the Private and Public Sector: The next panel examined AI governance tools that are being developed that can be used to assess risk management and AI ethics issues and to ensure the responsible use of AI. Examples include AI impact analyses, certifications, and AI policies. The panel highlighted the important role that lawyers, C-Suite executives, corporate boards, and policymakers play in ensuring effective AI governance.
Intellectual Property Protection: This panel provided updates on patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark protection for AI and robotics technologies and brands. For example, the panel talked about the latest developments concerning the protection of AI-generated patentable inventions around the world, including DABUS. Panelists explained the protectability of AI-generated art under copyright law. Trade secret protection for AI and robotics data and technology will be a useful form of protection for clients, and the panelists explained about trade secret protection of machine learning training datasets. Finally, the panel covered the impact of AI on trademarks, their protectability, brand promotion strategies, and enforcement efforts.
Drafting and Negotiating Machine Learning Agreements: This panel provided practical tips on drafting and negotiating contracts for AI and robotics products and services. It talked about both the vendor and customer perspectives. The panel’s practical guidance included contract implications of developing AI internally and through vendors, how to determine IP ownership, conducting and preparing for vendor due diligence, negotiating risk allocation provisions, and overseeing vendors through assessments, audits, and other management techniques.
Legal Ethics: This panel covered what attorneys need to know about AI and robotics technologies. The panel weighed in on how much an average attorney (or one with a technology practice) really needs to know about the intricacies of AI and robotics technologies in order to satisfy the ethical obligation of competency? To what extent must attorneys educate themselves on technology that their clients use? When should an attorney use an expert or to refer a matter to specialty counsel? How much do attorneys need to know about technology that their clients adopt? How must lawyers supervise non-lawyers involved in advising clients? The panel drew on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct tol cover lawyers’ obligations when advising clients about AI and robotics or when using such technologies in their own law practice.
Legal Issues of Lab-Grown Brains: We always end our Institutes with a forward-thinking program. This year’s future-oriented program had to do with brain “organoids.” Researchers are growing brain “organoids” in labs around the country for basic research about brain development, drug and treatment discovery, and studying individual patients. Yet researchers are seeing that such lab-grown brains are starting to evidence activities that might involve sensing and responding to surroundings, similar to the functioning of a brain, such as that of a premature infant. This panel talked about the science of brain organoids, how are they used in scientific research, and how they compare in capabilities with adult wakeful human brains? Panelists tackled the question of whether brain organoids could become sentient. What is sentience, and how would we know it? Would organoids deserve ethical concerns and perhaps even some legal rights? How will organoid research affect how we think of minds, consciousness, sentience, personhood, legal rights, and the human condition? This panel explored the fascinating future of brain organoids and how organoid research will make us rethink what it is to be human.
If you are interested in any of these issues or want to follow up with questions about the Institute, please contact me and I would be happy to assist you.
Steve Wu