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NLJ this week: Do we really need legislation on AI?

31 January 2025
Issue: 8102 / Categories: Legal News , Artificial intelligence , Technology , Regulatory , Profession
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Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may be developing fast but—contrary to popular opinion—the ’panicked rush to legislation’ to regulate it is not necessary, writes Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation & adjunct professor, IE University Law School, in this week’s NLJ.

McDougall questions the popular belief that AI is in urgent need of more legislation. In this very readable article, he explains why AI may be ‘a fantastic, epoch-making, fourth-Industrial Revolution-making, complicated computer program’ but the bulk of issues it creates are already covered by existing legislation.

Moreover, as he demonstrates, AI is extremely difficult to define. He writes that ‘the real philosophical problem with all of these legislative attempts is that they are trying to regulate for either something that already exists and is covered by existing law, or something that does not exist and may never exist: truly self-aware AI’. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
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