Authored by Dr. Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, President, Cyberlaws.Net, Chairman, International Commission On Cyber Security Law
The year 2024 has been the year of Artificial Intelligence including Generative Artificial Intelligence. Clearly, Artificial Intelligence has been growing at a phenomenal pace but the manner in which Generative AI has changed the ecosystem, effectively means that the arms-race is now on.
Newer and more powerful AI algorithms including Generative AI algorithms are being developed by companies without pausing to think about the legal ramifications for the same. Every company is jumping the gun on developing new AI machine algorithms, with moral safeguards taking a backseat. This lack of regard for the moral safeguards concerns the lawmakers. So as we are bound to see some very aggressive new products and services in the Generative AI ecosystem, the year 2024 is expected to be a major year as far as evolution of Artificial Intelligence Law is going to be concerned.
This is so because AI Law is likely to develop at a phenomenal pace in the year 2024 and beyond. More and more stakeholders would increasingly be looking at how the legal norms and regulation of AI can be effectively chiselled.
A lot of scholars still believe that AI is good enough to be regulated by the existing regulation. But the very nature of Artificial Intelligence itself shows that existing legal frameworks may not be adequate to deal with Artificial Intelligence. AI is a dynamic system which changes as the sands of time pass on. That is the reason why different countries across the world have already started coming up with their own distinctive national laws on Artificial Intelligence.
China has come up with the worldโs first law on Generative AI and implemented the same on 15th August, 2023. The European Union AI Act has been passed. However, the new massive quantum developments in Generative AI effectively means that the time has come for them to have a relook at various proposed legal frameworks.
New York has come up with its own distinctive legal framework pertaining to Artificial Intelligence. The focus of these and more legislations will continue to somehow deal with the bigger challenges that Artificial Intelligence is beginning to throw up.
Hallucination of content by AI is going to be one of the bigger problems and the bigger priority areas for the lawmakers to focus in the year 2024. Similarly to ensure that humans are not discriminated against by the discriminatory approaches and the bias intrinsic in AI algorithms appropriate legal frameworks will have to evolve and specify new provisions and parameters in this regard.
Further, we are likely to see massive use of AI for purposes of not just cybersecurity breaches but also for the purpose of committing various cyber-criminal activities. Hence, AI crimes and AI cyber security breaches are going to become increasingly more and more predominant as the year passing by.
This effectively means that there will now increasingly be demand and need felt by stakeholders across the world so as to curb the misuse of AI for cyber breaches or for the purposes of committing cyber-criminal activities or cybercrimes. In this regard, some of the existing national laws on cyber security and on cybercrimes could potentially be invoked, but clearly because of the intrinsic character of Artificial Intelligence, the time has come for the world to come up with new legal frameworks to deal with AI cyber security breaches and AI cybercrimes.
This is going to be one of the most crucial thrust areas as far as growth of cyber legal jurisprudence globally is going to be concerned. Countries are also realising that there is no international legal framework to regulate Artificial Intelligence. Therefore there could even be a push where countries could begin to start emphasising the need for coming up with international legal framework to regulate AI. Law makers are likely to move in the direction of making an AI global equivalence of the Non Proliferation Treaty, in order to keep the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence, surpassing human intelligence in check.
Clearly, when one looks at the various ethical frameworks already proposed for AI, a lot of work has been done in this regard, but merely having in place ethical principles and framework for AI may not suffice. At the end of the day, you will require effective and efficient legal frameworks to back up the enforcement of ethical standards and principles in this regard on the ethical ramifications of AI. Legal framework would need to stipulate the right and wrong in the usage of Artificial Intelligence.
No wonder, the growing talk about Responsible AI is getting more and more topical. We could even see some countries pushing the agenda for having in place minimum common denominators or agreed principles which could be agreed by nation states as they come together in the direction of trying to regulate AI at an international level. There is no denying the fact that AI will become the juggernaut of the 21st century. That being so, the chances of AI being used against human interests, human values and human liberties is going to be very high. Hence, the impact of AI on human values is going to be of crucial importance.
Well, Elon Musk has already stated that AI has become an existential threat to mankind. This existential threat is going to continue to keep on growing and developing, with the passage of time. Hence, quick mechanisms to prevent the misuse of AI against human interests will have to be the top most priority for government and various stakeholders as we go forward.
In the coming times, we could see legal frameworks for determining the legality of output of Artificial Intelligence as also determining the liability aspects of Artificial Intelligence. Popular media with the likes of cinema, books, short-stories etc. has shown the rising dangers Artificial Intelligence could impose. The misuse of Artificial Intelligence for creating harm and injury is going to be massive in the coming times, which will prove the fears shown by the popular media. Hence, the legal liability principles which will be applicable in the context of harms caused by Artificial Intelligence will basically have to be evolved with the passage of time. In the coming times, we could see some important developments taking place in this regard at the level of different countries.
Further, we are likely to also see extensive use of Artificial Intelligence so as to prejudicially impact the free fair level playing field for stakeholders in the digital economy. There are going to be increasingly efforts to misuse AI to promote anti-competitive behaviour and to further go ahead and further expose various consumers to more discrimination and price speculation using AI. This will be one area that will increasingly be engaging the attention of competition regulators globally.
The time has come where in 2024, the competition regulators will increasingly have to come at a very quick pace and start developing the norms of the time so that the misuse of Artificial Intelligence for prejudicially impacting competition issues could be minimised to the best extent possible.
Cyber security of Artificial Intelligence will have to also become a very important thrust area as far as legal regulatory frameworks are going to be concerned. Today, when we donโt exactly know what exactly are various building blocks of AI algorithms, the chances are that these building blocks could be manipulated in terms of their cyber security to prejudicially impact the outcome of Artificial Intelligence algorithms and generative capabilities.
Hence, minimum parameters for ensuring the protection and preservation of cyber security in Artificial Intelligence will also increasingly become an important priority and thrust area for countries to start regulating and coming up with norms in this regard.
The coming time is also likely to see as to how AI jurisdiction is going to develop into a big paradigm. We already are living in cyberspace where internet has made its mark in making geography, history, Today, the internet jurisdiction issues are going to get far more confounded by the applicability and invocation of Artificial Intelligence across national territorial boundaries so as to cause wrongful loss, harm or injury to stakeholders located in other jurisdictions across the world.
Attribution of acts done by AI will have to be also very important thrust area which will engage the potential attention of lawmakers as we move forward.
The most important challenge will be as to how do countries go ahead and legally define the legality of Artificial Intelligence. Can Artificial Intelligence be given a legal status in terms of being a legal entity? If so, what are going to be the legal ramifications and consequences arising there from? This is going to be a major issue that will engage the attention of lawmakers across the world.
Clearly, the experience so far has been that lawmakers are by and large shying away from addressing this particular issue, while trying to just address fringe issues. But clearly, legality of Artificial Intelligence is a million dollar question. If answered properly, it could open up new vistas of growth, opportunities and new progress that human civilisation has not yet seen.
The increased use of Artificial Intelligence in different verticals and areas of human endeavours means that in the near future we could also see the emergence of vertical specific regulations concerning Artificial Intelligence. Hence, specific regulators of specific industries are likely to come up with new guidance and inputs on how AI needs to be enforced and implemented in the context of specific verticals, disciplines and areas of human activities and endeavours.
We are likely to see proliferation of use of Artificial Intelligence in governance ecosystem. Hence, the need for ensuring the impartiality of output of Artificial Intelligence for governance purposes will have to be legally ensured. In this entire ecosystem, the AI companies and AI coders cannot be left far behind. Very quickly the attention of the lawmakers across the world is going to grow and focus on these AI coders and AI service companies. They would increasingly be now facing a new wave of regulation where they are going to be made responsible to some extent regarding the activities or acts, deeds or things which are done by Artificial Intelligence.
Hence, due diligence and appropriate safeguarding that will have to be followed by AI companies and AI service providers will be an important thrust area as far as Cyberlaw jurisprudence in the coming times is concerned.
The aforesaid are some of the more important developments in Artificial Intelligence law jurisprudence which are likely to take place in the year 2024 and beyond. We need to appreciate that the list made above is neither complete nor comprehensive but only represents some of the key important areas and developments that I expect the world is likely to see in AI legal jurisprudence in the near future. It is very much possible that we can see far more other new developments pertaining to new technological paradigms in the year 2024.
The aforesaid key trends will be of importance and interest for Cyberlaw practitioners and digital stakeholders as they navigate their ways through the choppy waters of digital and cyberspace and the uneven bounces of newly emerging technologies.
The author Dr Pavan Duggal is internationally renowned expert and authority on Cyberlaw, Cyber Security Law, Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies. He is the Chairman of the International Commission on Cyber Security Law and has been acknowledged as one of the top four cyber lawyers of the world. He can be reached at his email addresses pavan@pavanduggal.com and pavanduggal@yahoo.com. More about Dr. Pavan Duggal is available at www.pavanduggal.com.
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