1,721,038 research outputs found
Deux machina: a cross-disciplinary approach to artificial intelligence for regulatory understanding
Get PDFLegal scholars, policymakers and artificial intelligence researchers disagree about how to typify and describe artificial intelligence; the goalposts are constantly shifting with the advancement of technology, but this is an ancillary matter. Definitions aside, sophisticated decision-making technology is widespread and influential, and a more important normative question needs answering: when should machines be used to make decisions? Since the law is premised on clear avenues of responsibility, rationality, and objective justifications for decisions, the prospect of complex, non-human decision-makers tendering inscrutable decisions with considerable utility but ineffable reasoning is a novelty without comparison in the realm of technology regulation. I contend that this novelty necessitates a deeper, contextual understanding of artificially-intelligent decision-making technology to provide a foundation for regulatory answers to the normative question and resolve ambiguity that pervades more general discussion. Meaningful answers cannot be obtained in the abstract and are tied to the domain in which machine decisions are made; broad doctrinal approaches that begin from the law, and take a technology-neutral approach to regulation, are thus inadequate. Medicine, a science and an art with a long history of integration of artificially-intelligent technology, provides a useful domain for close inquiry. Reliance on machine decision-making by physicians and patients in clinical medical contexts reveals important considerations that high-level discussions do not uncover; the most important of these is that data-driven machines reason in a manner that is alien to human reasoning, and this incongruity is the source of the unintelligibility described vaguely as the ‘black box’ of machine reasoning. Nonetheless, carefully designed machine reasoning is consistent, insightful, and useful, and should be constrained by predefined structural roles for machines, rather than human notions of explanation. Comprehensive, unambiguous understanding is a fundamental prerequisite to the regulatory prescription of suitable roles for machines, and understanding is what I provide here
Mortgages and The Credit Crunch:Cause and Effect
No full textThe link between the terms 'property' and 'security' raises both timeless, and timely, questions as to the relationship between these two concepts. Timeless, because security has always been seen as a core element of the institution of property; and timely, because exploring the ways in which property and security are related is more relevant than ever, at the end of a year when the entire edifice of the international financial system - grounded ultimately in property rights - has been threatened with collapse. This is a compilation of papers presented at the Property Law Teachers Association Conference 2009 covering the thematic issues of property and security. This collection is an important resource for both students and academic researchers, and is ideal for practitioners working in mortgages/securities law, currently a highly litigated area of practice. The papers explain the rapidly developing case law and complexities in the law, while making arguments for legal change
Privacy Act Review Report 2022: Impact on Law & Technology
Get PDFThree years in the making, the Privacy Act Review Report 2022 (the Report) was published by the Attorney-General's Department in February this year. Initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Digital Platforms Inquiry Final Report 2019, it was preceded by the Issues Paper 2020 and the Discussion Paper 2021; and put forth a total of 116 proposals for reforming the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
Changes to the Act have been long overdue, despite some amendments in 2014 and 2017. Last year, the data breaches at Optus, Medibank, and Woolworths brought this to the forefront of legal and political discussions, and of course, public concern. Subsequently, the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Act 2022 (Cth) was enacted, significantly increasing the penalties for data breaches and strengthening the powers of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). It could be debated that these measures were extemporaneous, however these are based on the changes suggested in the Issues Paper and the Discussion Paper and may soon be supplemented by legislative changes based on the comprehensive Report.
The Report's proposals are substantial not just in number, but also the extent of changes to the Act, and will significantly impact any organisation processing personal information. Some recommendations draw from the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, which claims to be “the toughest privacy and security law in the world”. This is most prominent in proposals to recognise rights for data subjects, distinguish between data controllers and data processors, and introduction of standard contractual clauses for overseas data sharing.
Predominantly, the Report clarifies and expands the information protected by the Privacy Act, empowering individuals, strengthening the enforcement and compliance mechanism by making it less complex and more flexible, and increasing transparency. While this column cannot review all of the changes, it focuses on some of those most pertinent to the technologies used in data processing
A Family Affair: Sharing Information about Genetic Diseases
Get PDFGenetic test results provide information relevant to the future health of the person tested as well as parents, siblings, children and more distant relatives. This Article examines the legal consequences that might follow a decision to share or withhold genetic information. It argues that the obstacles to liability might not be justified in situations where either disclosure of genetic information or silence will cause significant harm
Forum: Our 21st Century Brain – IV – Turbocharging Human Intelligence with Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence: affordances and limits in the context of judging
No full textVolume: 157Start Page: 123End Page: 12
All Rise for the Honourable Robot Judge?
Get PDFThere is a rich literature on the challenges that AI poses to the legal order. But to what extent might such systems also offer part of the solution? China, which has among the least developed rules to regulate conduct by AI systems, is at the forefront of using that same technology in the courtroom. This is a double-edged sword, however, as its use implies a view of law that is instrumental, with parties to proceed-ings treated as means rather than ends. That, in turn, raises fundamental questions about the nature of law and authority: at base, whether law is reducible to code that can optimize the human condition, or if it must remain a site of contestation, of politics, and inextricably linked to institutions that are themselves account-able to a public. For many of the questions raised, the rational answer will be sufficient; but for others, what the answer is may be less important than how and why it was reached, and whom an affected population can hold to account for its consequences
Education in an Era of Convergence
Get PDFThis paper considers alternatives to strict disciplinarity, particularly in legal education, in light of the increasing importance of problem spaces that cross disciplines including computational law and cyber security. It is a short provocation rather than a broad-ranging inquiry and focuses on law/computer science collaborations. It asks three questions that are increasingly controversial: (1) What might be done within disciplinary programs, such as law, to prepare students to work wisely alongside engineered systems? (2) What might be done to develop students’ skills at cross-disciplinary problem-solving throughout their education? (3) Should we offer undergraduate degrees oriented not around a discipline but a problem-space; for example, should computational law be a new discipline
Submission to Inquiry into Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Online Privacy and Other Measures) Bill 2021 and consultation Regulation Impact Statement
Get PDFSubmission on anti-discrimination review
Get PDFRelates to proposed terms of reference. We focus on the first proposed term, “whether the Act could be modernised and simplified to better promote the equal enjoyment of rights and reflect contemporary community standards” and the related fourth proposed term “whether the existing tests for discrimination are clear, inclusive and reflect modern understandings of discrimination”. In relation to both, we urge the review to focus inter alia on the question of the impact of socio-technical systems for decision-making in general and the impact of machine learning approaches in particular
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