Ofcom has published its long-expected consultation on additional measures that it recommends U2U platforms and search engines should implement to fulfil their duties under the Online Safety Act. The focus, this time, is almost entirely on proactive technology: automated systems intended to detect particular kinds of illegal content and content harmful to children, with a view to…
Read More… from Ofcom’s Proactive Technology Measures: Principles-Based or Vague?
Clive Davies condenses years of experience in IT contract delivery and suggests how the processes can be better handled by the lawyers. I commenced my career in an in-house legal function, but one that also had an associated private practice. I stayed in industry with the energy and IT sectors before moving into private practice…
After our recent podcast episode on privacy and tech laws in Latin America, two of the guests, Bárbara Lazarotto and Luz Orozco, stayed behind to share some additional insights with the host, Mauricio Figueroa. Bárbara Lazarotto Can you share a bit of the work you do at the Brussels Privacy Hub? What is like day-to-day and…
Camilo Artiga-Purcell, General Counsel at Kiteworks, identifies some of the ever-increasing risks and potential consequences of rushing to use AI in legal practice Picture a partner at a leading UK law firm, racing to finalise a high-stakes merger. With a deadline looming, they turn to a free online AI tool, uploading sensitive deal documents for…
Read More… from AI Data Leaks & Shadow AI: The Legal Minefield Facing UK Organisations in 2025
Amanda Chaboryk, Chris Cartmell, and Stephanie Baker, of PwC, raise some early considerations about the seemingly inevitable spread of agentic AI into legal departments IntroductionArtificial Intelligence (AI) has played an increasingly prominent role within legal, starting as early as the 90’s, when legal databases started incorporating natural language processing to optimise search and retrieval. Leaping…
Read More… from The (Speculative) Rise of AI Agents in Legal
A team from Cripps reveal the perhaps surprising results of their research in to the political leanings of LLMs. In this article, Cripps’ specialist AI and Data team unpacks the political bias in generative artificial intelligence large language models (“LLMs”). We present the available research, explain our own test results and conclude that LLMs have…
Read More… from LLMs are Left-Leaning Liberals: The Hidden Political Bias of Large Language Models
James Humphrey-Evans and Nedko Nedev set out the corporate risk factors associated with communications networks, including those exposed by the recent Iberian outage. Along pavements and roads in major cities, you will cross over the groundworks and chambers used by telcos for the networks we all use, just as the utility networks bring power and…
Read More… from Telecoms, resilience and corporate governance risk and compliance
Chinese courts take a different approach to the issue of AI generating copyright protected images, the DLA Piper team reports. On 7 March 2025, the Changshu People’s Court (in China’s Jiangsu province) announced that it had recently concluded a case on the topical issue of whether AI-generated works can be protected by copyright. In the…
We have teamed up with the LIDC (International League of Competition Law) to share a series of podcasts examining some of the increasingly pressing questions around cloud computing, AI and competition law. Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of…
Read More… from Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 1 – The Status Quo
Ryan E. Long warns of the US lawsuits currently targeting social media platforms The Set Up Great news! Your UK based social media dating company – “Better Than Cupid” – just got funded. It’s been launched in the US and is slated to be released in other countries. You just started celebrating. But then you…
Mauricio Figueroa argues why we need to look beyond the conventions of international law to regulate AI Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are being deployed across industries and sectors of the economy; it is certainly a global problem. At first glance, international law seems like an obvious way forward: a platform designed to address cross-border issues….
Read More… from The Drawbacks of International Law in Governing Artificial Intelligence
Online Safety Act 2023 (Commencement No 4) Regulations 2024 made The Online Safety Act 2023 (Commencement No 4) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/1333) have been made. These Regulations are the fourth commencement regulations under the Online Safety Act 2023. They bring into force on 17 January 2025 the duties about regulated provider pornographic content in section…
The Basics and Beyond Rónán Kennedy reviews a book aimed directly at the legal professional who needs to understand the technology they advise on. Those who work in law and technology are sure to encounter some aspect of hardware or software that they do not understand, either because it is new or because they simply…
Read More… from Technology and Security for Lawyers and Other Professionals
Mark Ryan and Tom Sweet of SES Secure trace the evolution of software escrow and the impact of AI on its use As many readers will know, software escrow is a risk mitigation tool that safeguards the critical assets, such as software applications, organisations are reliant on. It typically involves a tri-party legal agreement being…
Read More… from Software Escrow – Its Evolution, Use in Legal Frameworks and The Influence of AI
Amanda Chaboryk examines how policies and organisations may need to adapt if generative AI is to be used to improve access to justice. Introduction The legal field has consistently faced a growing and essential demand for innovation to tackle persistent issues related to access to justice. At a high level, the primary factors that impact access…
Mauricio Figueroa summarises the key points from the SCL AI Conference hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills on 8th October. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics, trainees, in-house lawyers, and civil society representatives gathered at Herbert Smith Freehills’ offices in London for the annual Society for Computers and Law AI conference. The event brought together experts to explore the…
The long-awaited Procurement Act is scheduled to come into force in February next year promising a more flexible regime. Professor Albert Sanchez-Graells picks out some of the challenges it will pose for those working in public-sector procurement. After a recently announced 4-month delay to its ‘go live’ date, the Procurement Act 2023 is now due…
Read More… from The Procurement Act 2023 and its implications for tech procurement
Amanda Chaboryk and Nicholas Cook highlight the importance of reviewing your information architecture before using your data for generative AI The advent of artificial intelligence (AI), and generative AI (GenAI) in particular, has resulted in a dawning era of transformative potential in the legal domain. It has been met with a range of reactions from…
Read More… from IA Before AI: Facilitating Generative AI Adoption within Legal Teams
Product Regulation and Metrology Bill introduced to Parliament On 4 September 2024, the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill had its first reading in the House of Lords. The Bill aims to reform the UK’s product safety regime by addressing modern safety issues. The Bill’s second reading in the House of Lords is due to take…
Tom Whittaker and Ryan Jenkins look at the increasing importance of AI literacy in the EU and more globally AI literacy in simple terms is about developing skills and understanding regarding how to develop and use AI, its opportunities and risks. Contracts, governance and internal policies may require or encourage some form of AI literacy….
Sachin Bhatt, our regular cybersecurity contributor, highlights the threats to our universities from malicious activity…
A team from Hogan Lovells consider the regulatory regimes governing digital accessibility in the UK and EU. Summary: In the era of digital transformation, the need to ensure products and services are accessible to all, including those who experience some form of disability, is greater than ever. While there is not (yet) a global uniform…
Andrew Woolsey and Sophie Ashcroft take a fresh look at the legal issues surrounding defective software through the lens of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal…
Once upon a time technologies like artificial intelligence and the metaverse were confined to the annals of science fiction. No longer, both innovations exist in the here and now, with vast potential to transform our world. These emergent technologies, however, are not without attributes of concern, one of which is energy consumption and the consequent…
Read More… from Emerging technologies and the climate: charting a pathway to pre-emptive oversight
IT contracts and disputes have long concentrated on functional specifications, tests and defects to assure that projects deliver what is intended. This is only part of what is required. William Hooper examines the role of design in contract and dispute….
A team from DLA Piper dig deeper into the House of Lords report on balancing risk and innovation in AI regulation, in particular, the open source question While much attention has been paid to the finalisation of the EU’s AI Act in recent weeks, developments in AI continue at a frenetic rate. On 2nd February…
The price of Bitcoin has climbed since the SEC allowed new trading funds. Martyna Dudek explains what’s changed and the FCA’s own moves to allow crypto trading….
Áine Rafferty knows an in-house legal team is a critical component for many technology firms and has been recognised by industry peers for leading high performing in house technology teams. Here she provides some steers on how to make sure the team is valued by the other parts of the business. The role of the…
Read More… from 5 steps to building a high performance in-house legal team
Adrian Aronsson-Storrier and Helen Hart look at the recent case of Harber, a tax case involving fictitious case references generated by ChatGPT…
In Case C-413/23 P | EDPS v SRB, the Court of Justice of the European Union has overturned a previous ruling by the General Court which annulled a decision by the European Data Protection Supervisor. This case began after a resolution decision of Banco Popular Español on 7 June 2017. The Single Resolution Board (SRB)…
The EU’s General Court has rejected a legal challenge in Latombe v Commission T553/23) against the new EU-US data transfer framework that allows personal data to be transferred from the EU to the US. The Court confirmed that, at the time the system was adopted, the US provided a sufficient level of protection for personal…
Read More… from EU General Court rejects legal challenge to EU-US data transfer framework
The UK government has launched a consultation about changes to the UK designs framework. It aims “to create a designs system fit for the future – one that is simpler, more effective, and better able to support UK creativity and innovation in a rapidly evolving digital landscape”. The government says that it is aware that…
Read More… from UK government consults on changes to the UK designs regime
UK law Ofcom consults on notification guidance for online safety fees Ofcom has opened a consultation on technical guidance relating to online safety fees. These fees, which it published its main decisions about earlier this year, will fund Ofcom’s online safety regulation. They will be paid by companies in scope of the Online Safety Act…
Following last week’s consultations in response to the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 coming into force, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is now also consulting on guidance on distributed ledger technologies. Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) such as blockchain, seek to store, synchronise and maintain digital records across a network of computing centres. Their uses…
Read More… from ICO consults on guidance for distributed ledger technologies
UK law Ofcom investigates Duplanto Ltd under online safety age check rules Ofcom has announced that it is investigating Duplanto Ltd, which runs a porn site, in relation to the age-check requirements under the Online Safety Act. Since 25 July, sites that allow users to upload pornographic content have been required to use highly effective…
With all the excitement over the EU’s AI Act and the UK’s data protection reforms, there is another piece of legislation coming into force soon which may have been somewhat overlooked – the EU’s so-called Data Act. It’s quite a complex piece of legislation and if you start looking into it you’ll end up down…
In response to the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA) coming into force, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is consulting on two pieces of new guidance on: Recognised legitimate interest “Recognised legitimate interest” is a new lawful basis. The ICO says that this new basis will give organisations greater confidence to use personal information…
Read More… from ICO launches consultations on guidance for Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 amendments
UK law 4chan says it won’t comply with the Online Safety Act 2023 Back in June, we reported that Ofcom had opened formal investigations into various companies under the Online Safety Act 2023, including the online discussion board 4chan. This month, it issued 4chan with “a provisional notice of contravention” for failing to comply with…
The digital realm is built on earth, steel, and wires. Behind every byte lies a network of warehouses drawing power, cooling systems consuming water, and land once belonging to local communities. As AI expands, so do its environmental demands. Can the drive for technological innovation align with the fight for environmental justice? Host Mauricio Figueroa…