Artificial Intelligence is the fastest developing technology , raising unresolved legal questions.
For example, who will be responsible if a robot makes a technical error that results in the death of a human being? How will personal data be protected from now on? And what about intellectual property?
With the previously analyzed regulations, which are expected to come into force in a short period of time, the aim is to achieve a balance between technological progress and the ethics and protection of human beings .
Without a doubt, the biggest challenge is the ethics of technology , and this is largely due to the fact that, at the moment, there is no single definition of what is meant by Artificial Intelligence.
Has Artificial Intelligence already created legal problems?
Yes, and among others:
The Social Court No. 10 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Judgment of September 23, 2019, Procedure 470/2019, ruled on the dismissal of a worker , being the same unfair. Specifically, the worker was replaced by a robot, the Company alleging productive, technical and organizational causes . The Judge points out that the causes were not sufficiently proven, raising certain questions and nuances about fundamental rights and automation.
There have also been problems with an autonomous vehicle which ran over a citizen and killed him. The European Parliament has warned about this, pointing out that it is a crucial issue to define civil and even criminal liability for both personal and material damages caused by the actions of Artificial Intelligence.
On the other hand, a relevant issue is that of data protection , since Artificial Intelligence is nourished by it. This gives rise to two different questions. Firstly, where does this data come from and how has it been obtained and, secondly, whether it contains biases or errors.
There is data on this matter, and in this regard, the Wisconsin vs Loomis case, where a racial bias was clearly observed when using a predictive machine learning algorithm, also known as Machine Learning .
These biases also affect the workplace, for example, for gender reasons. For example, Amazon used a deep learning algorithm which, upon detecting that the percentage of women who reached the final phase of the Human Resources interview was lower, systematically rejected all CVs sent by women .
Regarding Copyright , the current regulations, that is, Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996, of April 12 , which approves the Revised Text of the Intellectual Property Law, indicates in its fifth precept that the author is considered to be the natural person who creates a literary, artistic or scientific work.
Under the above, Artificial Intelligence cannot hold Copyright over a work generated by itself, such that the question to be determined is whether a user or programmer of the same can be the owner of the aforementioned rights.
The answer is not unanimous, and while one part of the sector would apply it literally, another, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (hereinafter, "WIPO"), considers that the user or programmer who developed the AI is the author.
Artificial Intelligence and its application in litigation
As will be assessed in due course, Artificial Intelligence and its application in litigation also raises problems, since it is possible that the Fundamental Rights of the parties may be violated, there may be a lack of motivation in the documents, or in the use of algorithms which, as has been seen, may lead to biases.
Conclusion
In short, Artificial Intelligence can give rise to relevant legal problems such as civil and criminal liability, data protection or bias, among other points, in such a way that new regulations, as well as jurisprudence, must provide a technical and appropriate solution.
