The Society for Computers and Law has taken AI seriously since the 1980s. Our initial focus was on expert systems and how they might be used by lawyers. As time rolled on and more sophisticated technologies appeared, our attention shifted to the legal repercussions of these increasingly capable systems. Today, we devote our time both to the legal implications and the legal applications of artificial intelligence. As AI continues to advance at a ferocious and accelerating pace, our tech lawyers and legal technologists are working together in doing what we do best – wrestling with emerging systems and thinking through their impact.
This issue of Computers & Law, devoted exclusively to AI, is an exhibit of this ongoing work. It is also a clear demonstrator of the spirit of the Society. We have, in our community, many national and international experts at the interface of law and technology. We share a fascination with technology and its effects, current and future. We enjoy collaborating, and are bonded at this moment by a strong sense that we are living at a time of unprecedented technological progress.
Weaving through the pages, there is a related sense of responsibility. To be sure, most members of our Society are enthusiastic about the great potential of AI as a tool, for example, to help us tackle humanity’s gravest challenges – from ensuring access to healthcare, legal services, and education to unearthing scientific discoveries, not least in tackling carbon emissions and in optimising or even inventing alternative sources of power. But we are also alive to the manifest threats that AI might pose – to our social and economic wellbeing, our political structures, our mental health, and even to our very existence. We recognise that our legislatures, our regulators, our standard-setters, our courts, and our policymakers will be significant players in ensuring that AI will be used safely and responsibly. The sense of responsibility here for many of us is one of feeling urged to accept that our job as lawyers is not only to advise on the law of AI but also to contribute to the development of that law for the public good.
In the articles that follow, there is a healthy mix of clarifying what the law is and what it ought to be. There are contributions on regulation and governance, on boardroom business issues, on AI’s use in legal practice, and there are training and learning resources here too.
There is a limit to the clarity we can bring, however, as we navigate the future. None of us knows how the story of AI will unfold. We can of course extrapolate from current trends and systems that are in use, but all trajectories suggest that there are many more technological breakthroughs yet to come. I have for some time about ‘not yet invented’ systems, in the (disconcerting) belief that the most AI impactful systems have yet to be developed. Somehow we have to factor into our long-term policymaking and strategy planning the likelihood of entirely new techniques and applications – much more advanced systems than we have today.
The pages that follow are our community’s latest contribution to the ongoing conversation about this exciting and yet inherently unfathomable future.
I hope readers enjoy the collection as much as I did. I am sure you will want to join me in thanking our editors and contributors for producing such an engaging and important volume.
Richard Susskind, President, SCL
This article is also available in the special AI issue of Computers & Law, which is available to download here.
