AI, Technology, and the Law - Summary Notes

AI, Technology, and the Law

  • AI's unique challenges to laws.
  • The Paralyzing Principle.
  • Kranzberg's Laws (1-5).
  • Major branches of law and connections to tech overview.

Key Terms

  • Externalities: positive and negative.
  • Public policy.
  • Consent.
  • Consumer protection: Informed consent.
  • Vulnerable populations.
  • Fundamental rights:
    • Freedom of association.
    • Freedom of expression.
    • Privacy.

How New Technology Challenges Law

  • Uncertainty about the extent to which existing law applies to new technologies.
  • Language in laws may inappropriately include/exclude new technologies.
  • New rules to regulate qualitatively new conduct.

Some Justifications for Regulation

  • Paternalism.
  • Externalities.
  • Coordination.

Pacing Problem

  • Technology sometimes moves faster than law.
  • Lawmakers reluctant to interfere with innovation.

Collingridge Dilemma

  • Full impact of a technology cannot be predicted until widely used.
  • Once widely used, difficult to make changes.

Decision Rule Under Uncertainty

  • Risk: all potential outcomes and probabilities are known.
  • Uncertainty: outcomes are known, but probabilities are not fully known.
  • Ignorance: uncertainty that cannot be quantified.
  • Examples of the precautionary principle.

Kranzberg’s Laws

  1. Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.
    • Whether technology is good or bad depends on context (which can be shaped by law).
    • Law can change the impact of technology for good or bad.
  2. Invention is the mother of necessity.
    • One invention or innovation tends to generate others in response.
    • A new technology may call for legal changes due to cascading effects.
  3. Technology comes in packages, big and small.
    • Technology can be a small discrete invention or something more complicated.
    • Technology law needs to work at many scales (problem for IP law).
  4. Nontechnical factors take precedence in technology policy decisions.
    • Design and deployment of technology is more a function of socio-technical factors than technical ones.
    • Lawmakers will be reluctant to hand tech-related decisions to technical experts.
  5. All history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant.
    • Technology may be the most important factor in historical outcome and change.
    • Laws for technology can have tremendous consequences.

Major Branches of Law and Connections to Tech

  • Public Law
    • Fundamental Rights
    • Citizenship, Identification, and Participation
    • Criminal Law & Justice
  • Private Law
    • Contract Law
    • Tort Law
    • Competition Law
    • Property Law
    • Intellectual Property Law
    • Privacy Law

Criminal Law

  • Deals with behavior condemned as deserving of punishment.
  • Law & economics perspective: overcome judgment proof problem.
  • Main questions:
    • Who committed the act?
    • Is the act a criminal offense under the law?
    • Did the person act intentionally?
    • How much should he be punished?

Technology’s Impact on Criminal Law

  • Shift from investigation to targeting and prevention.
  • Algorithms applied in many aspects of criminal justice.
  • Facial recognition and other surveillance technologies.
  • New DNA technologies.

Key Terms in Criminal Law

  • Presumption of innocence.
  • Burden of proof.
  • Legal penalties versus vigilantism.
  • Privacy law.
  • Actus reus.
  • Legal enforcement versus fundamental rights.
  • Deterrence.
  • Incentives.

Competition Law

  • Reflects economic and social conclusions.
  • Competitive marketplaces are better at generating wealth and opportunities.
  • Political feelings that entities have become too big.

Key Terms in Competition Law

  • Market power.
  • Bargaining power.
  • Monopoly rents.
  • Multi-sided markets.
  • Network effects.
  • Utility.
  • Natural monopoly.

Intellectual Property Law

  • Delineates ownership rights related to knowledge, know-how, and creative expressions.
  • Various regimes for protecting intellectual property:
    • Patents
    • Copyright
    • Trade Secret
    • Trademark

Key Terms in Intellectual Property Law

  • Moral rights
  • Legal rights
  • Privacy law
  • Authorship
  • Incentives to create

Privacy Law

  • Regulations collection and use of personal data.
  • Concerns about privacy create many conflicts between law, traditional expectations, and technological reality.

Key Terms in Privacy Law

  • Fundamental rights
  • Government actors
  • Personal data and data processing laws
  • Privacy laws
  • Biometrics
  • Discrimination
  • Transparency
  • Proportionality
  • Proprietary software and trade secret

Tort Law

  • Concerned with compensation for harm suffered by one party due to the actions of another.
  • Non-criminal cases.
  • Most relevant for harms between strangers.
  • Various regimes for determining fault and compensation:
    • Strict liability
    • Negligence liability

Key Terms in Tort Law

  • Foreseeability
  • Duty of care
  • Cost-benefit analysis
  • Negligence standard
  • Strict liability