Artificial intelligence and law: An overview

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Writing about artificial intelligence (AI) presents challenges. Indeed, the field has evolved rapidly and offers the potential for significant paradigm changes,1 making it the focus of much academic and other writing.2 But it can be hard to pin down exactly what AI is. Outside of general description[s], no commonly agreed-upon definition of AI exists.3 AI includes technology . . . [that] focuse[s] upon automating specific types of tasks: those that are thought to involve intelligence when people perform them.4 And the term is a catchall shorthand for different types of programs, especially machine learning algorithms,5 such as large language models6 (LLMs). Less technically, but perhaps more pervasively, AI is a hot marketing term[] that capitalizes on uncritical acceptance of and interest in promises about exciting new technology.7 Models labeled AI today are distinct from autonomous artificial intelligence,8 sometimes described as artificial general intelli- gence9 (AGI). Regardless of which form of AI is under discussion, AIs penetrating impact and as yet uncertain consequences implicate