AI and Real World Ethics Ethics and Technology on the Cutting Edge By Edward McIntyre
S
lowly — as though pushing through a parting cloud — some of us only now are beginning to realize that AI (artificial intelligence) is shaping, and likely will dominate, our lives and futures. Well beyond our expectations. Beyond our imaginations, even. Yet this is the precise environment that California Western School of Law’s Second Annual Legal Ethics Symposium sought to tackle — with the added dimension of its ethical implications.
U
ndaunted, it brought together scientists, technology experts and legal ethicists from around the country and across the globe to address the current state and foreseeable future of AI; the moral and legal dilemmas in regulating new technology; privacy, big data and medicine; and the impact of disruptive technology on public health and wellness — not an easy topic in the mix. Symposium presenters included Dr. Michael Sung from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, by way of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory among other institutions, as keynote speaker; and panelists Professors Thomas D. Barton, Timothy Casey and James M. Cooper, California Western School of Law; Jennifer Brobst, Assistant Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University; Professor Joshua P. Davis, University of San Francisco School of Law; Cayce Greiner, Partner, Tyson & Mendes, LLP; Dr. Fazal Khan, Associate Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law; Dr. Lydia Kostopoulos, Harvard University; Dr. Tokio Matsuzaki, UCSD and Kobe University Graduate School of
Medicine; Eleonore Pauwels, The Wilson Center; Brenda Simon, Associate Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law; and Bradley Wendel, Associate Dean and Professor of Law, Cornell Law School. Brooke Raunig, Editor-in-Chief of California Western Law Review, also contributed to the discussion, chairing one of the panels. Professor Casey started the day with the reminder that the Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 3-110 (competence) in particular, requires not only that we lawyers know the law, but also that we remain abreast of technological developments — the most spectacular of which at present is artificial intelligence. As science and technology races forward to push the limits of what AI can do, the goal of the symposium was to address the more difficult question: What AI should do? Dr. Sung set the stage with an exposition of the history of AI and an explanation of what AI is — and is not. He described how it is currently being deployed (law, radiology, banking, insurance, health care, to name a few fields) and some of its key facets
(natural language, machine learning, facial recognition, robotics). Then, he turned to the future. AI’s progression, as Dr. Sung presented his vision, is an inevitable and exponential “disrupter” — one that will drive social, business and political change on a logarithmic scale. We have, as he sees it, caught up with a future that is both exciting but, for some, will be an abrupt shift in what they find comfortable. His presentation raised overarching questions: How will AI and humans interact? And what responsibilities do we have for the development, deployment and ultimate use of AI? Against this backdrop, panelists then took on the moral and legal dilemmas in regulating new technology as a consequence of AI; some issues related to privacy, big data and medicine in relation to AI; and the impact of disruptive technology on public health and wellness given the possibilities AI can deliver — none of these a stroll in the park. May/June 2018 SAN DIEGO LAWYER 41