Litigating Artificial Intelligence: When Does AI Violate Our Legal Rights?

TORONTO, May 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We are living in an Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom. Self-driving cars, personal voice assistants, and facial recognition technology are just a few of the AI-enabled technologies permeating into everyday life. But what happens when AI causes harm or violates our rights? If your self-driving car gets into an accident while on autopilot, are you responsible? Can your smart speaker legally record your private conversations?

Emond Publishing, Canada’s leading independent legal publisher, today announced the release of Litigating Artificial Intelligence, a book examining AI-informed legal determinations, AI-based lawsuits, and AI-enabled litigation tools. Anchored by the expertise of general editors Jill R. Presser, Jesse Beatson, and Gerald Chan, this title offers practical insights regarding AI’s decision-making capabilities, position in evidence law and product-based lawsuits, role in automating legal work, and use by the courts, tribunals, and government agencies.

For example, can government agencies use AI-powered facial recognition software to identify BLM protestors and Capitol rioters, or does this violate privacy rights? Who is liable, users, developers, or AI? What laws are in place to prevent AI-related crimes, and how do litigators prosecute the responsible parties?

Jill R. Presser, Co-Chair and Founding Member of the Criminal Lawyers' Association Criminal Law and Technology Committee, says, “AI is still the wild west, the frontier where the law hasn’t yet come to town. AI tools are already in widespread and growing use, and yet there is no, or very little, law governing them.”

The public implicitly trusts AI technologies, and developers hail them as humanity’s panacea, but this short-sighted techno-positivism, without regulation and litigation frameworks, increases AI’s potential to harm rather than help humanity.

So how will AI affect legal practices and courtrooms? “Decision-makers are increasingly turning to AI-enabled tools in the context of immigration screening, bail and sentencing in Criminal Courts, and the hiring of new employees. While AI can supercharge your legal practice, the same algorithmic tools in the hands of adjudicators can import systemic bias, and litigators need to be prepared to tackle these challenges,” says Jesse Beatson, 2019 winner of the JSD Tory Research and Writing Award for his paper on AI and tribunal adjudications.

The intersection of AI and the law is inexorable. As a leader in the global AI race, Canada has an opportunity to construct legal and ethical frameworks that safeguard human rights and due process, and in doing so, become a model for other nations. Gerald Chan, Canada’s foremost legal expert in digital evidence, states, “Litigating Artificial Intelligence is an effort on our part to get ahead of the AI revolution and think critically about how litigators can grapple with its benefits, but also its potential harms.”

For more information on Litigating Artificial Intelligence, visit emond.ca/ai21

To hear from the General Editors, watch the Litigating Artificial Intelligence book trailer.

Download a sample chapter of Litigating Artificial Intelligence here.

For additional marketing materials, visit this Dropbox link.

For more information about Emond Publishing, please visit emond.ca

Contacts