Harvard Law School and Berkman Klein Center Announce New Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and the Law

Harvard Law School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society today announce the launch of the Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and the Law (IAIL), directed by Oren Bar-Gill, William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor of Law and Economics, and Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor.

The initiative will focus on new challenges and opportunities for the law created by the rise of artificial intelligence, from its potential enhancements to speed of legal practice and its aid to effectiveness for enforcement and adjudication, to broader societal issues such as consumer protection; investor protection; false advertising; privacy; misinformation; and discrimination and civil rights.

"Tackling these issues," Sunstein explains, is “One of the most important and challenging issues of our time.”

“I am delighted that thoughtful, creative, and rigorous colleagues from across multiple fields at Harvard Law School have come together to help launch the Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and the Law and to explore the role of law in understanding and shaping this powerful technology,” said John F. Manning, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law.

Based at the Berkman Klein Center, the IAIL will be overseen by an advisory board consisting of law school faculty including Professors Christopher Bavitz, Yochai Benkler, John Coates, Benjamin Eidelson, Noah Feldman, Lawrence Lessig, Martha Minow, Ruth Okediji, Holger Spamann, David Wilkins, Crystal Yang and Jonathan Zittrain.

The initiative will sponsor and promote new work on these topics by both faculty and students, hold conferences and symposia, and issue preliminary reports on emerging topics. A book by Bar-Gill and Sunstein on algorithms and consumer protection, developed at Harvard Law School, is slated to be one of the early products.

 
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