The White House recently issued a new executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) with various requirements designed to maintain national security. One such measure includes a mandate for companies to disclose to the federal government the risks their AI systems could pose in assisting hostile entities to develop weapons of mass destruction. This directive has been dissected further by various news outlets, includingNew York Times, Politico, and Thomson Reuters Legal. The executive order is available here.
In other news, the integration of AI in the legal industry appears to be plateauing, according to a recent Bloomberg Law survey. However, this marginally reduced engagement from attorneys should not be construed as an indication that AI will no longer be a prominent feature in legal tech.
As AI becomes increasingly regular within law firms, Legaltech News suggests that law firms which creatively apply AI in unique ways will distinguish themselves from their competitors.
Thomson Reuters has announced further investments in generative AI totaling $100 million. The company has also expressed a need to upskill its existing workforce in order to harness generative AI effectively. This follows their recent acquisition of the AI legal tech company, Casetext.
Lastly, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s comments at an international AI safety summit in the UK suggested a disparity between innovation and regulation. An editorial piece in Nature stresses that this juxtaposition is unnecessary, with the wealth of pre-existing literature on regulation providing evidence to the contrary. Researchers from Google DeepMind propose that the lessons learned from the history of civil nuclear technology can provide useful insights for AI regulation.