Artificial intelligence and the law: can we and should we regulate AI systems?
Riikka Koulu, Suvi Sankari, Hanne Hirvonen, Tatjaana Heikkinen · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023
Artificial intelligence (AI) deployment raises social and legal concerns, prompting legislators and legal scholars to explore regulating this technology. This book chapter contextualizes AI as a further technological step in the history of law and technology research, dating back to the 1940s with Lee Loevinger's introduction of jurimetrics. The authors examine past interactions of law and technology, the definition dilemma related to the concept of AI, how legal scholars have defined AI and whether they have identified regulatory needs, and assess the EU Commission's Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) proposal. The AIA serves as an example of using technology as justification for new regulatory policies, even if their rationales are unrelated to the technology itself. The chapter highlights the long-standing relationship between law, technology and society and suggests a critical take on the AI definition dilemma as well as the way the AIA regulates AI.