AI and the Law

Chapter 3. Innovate Responsibly

I am an optimist and I believe that we can create AI for the good of the world. That it can work in harmony with us. We simply need to be aware of the dangers, identify them, employ the best possible practice and management, and prepare for its consequences well in advance.

Stephen Hawking

Chapters 1 and 2 illustrated much of what can be seen as the AI problem: questioning responsibility for AI by law enforcement, courts, law offices, policy makers, private industry, and individuals.

This chapter discusses what we can do about it: how to learn from past mistakes and create frameworks for responsible innovation in the future. We will delve into corporate values and culture, algorithms and data best practices and ethics, AI liability and risk mitigation (an Algorithmic Impact Assessment), and, finally, establish appropriate controls to prevent exposure and harm.

Learn from Past Disasters

Stupid is as stupid does.

Forrest Gump, a character from the film of the same name

The late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said in 2017 that AI could be the worst event in the history of civilization. Hawking stated, “Success in creating effective AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don’t know. So we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it.”

Hawking went on to say, “Unless we learn how to prepare for, and avoid, the potential risks, ...