Legal experts have called for the necessity of developing laws and enacting legislation to reduce the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) systems to humans and societies in general, in light of the rapid development of these systems and their multiple uses.
The experts said, in statements to Qatar News Agency , on the sidelines of the Law and Artificial Intelligence Conference at Lusail University Wednesday, that AI is developing rapidly to enter into the details of our daily lives, and with this rapid development, it is necessary to take into account the risks, potential consequences, and effects on human life, freedom, and rights. In this context, they stressed that Arab countries urgently need to develop their legal systems to keep pace with this rapid development of artificial intelligence systems to reduce the risks resulting from the use of these systems in all fields: sports, medical, educational, judicial, security, and others.
Vice Chairman of Qatar Lawyers Association Dr. Thani bin Ali Al-Thani highlighted the need for Arab countries to develop their technical infrastructure to keep pace with the rapid development in various fields, especially in the field of litigation, indicating that the increasing reliance on AI in the judicial field, and the need for governance, monitoring and preparing the infrastructure.
He expressed his hope that the conference would come up with recommendations that would serve the legal, social and judicial sectors on the basis that everyone bears a responsibility to monitor usage.
In turn, Dean of the College of Law at Sultan Qaboos University Dr. Saleh Al Barashidi considered AI has brought about a tremendous revolution, and has contributed positively to several fields such as health, trade, security, and the economy. However, there are several concerns resulting from the use of artificial intelligence technology, including those related to privacy and the extent to which the user of these technologies is fully protected. He pointed out that there are concerns related to the discrimination and bias of artificial intelligence systems in making decisions, as they depend in their outputs on the inputs provided by the programmers, therefore, there is human intervention in this process, in addition to other concerns due to the so-called self-learning of the machine, which may make incomprehensible decisions or result in damage of some kind.
He also stressed the urgent need in the world in general and the Arab world in particular to have legal governance followed by ethical governance to regulate artificial intelligence to enhance its safe use and reduce its risks.
Dr. Al-Barashidi explained that there are countries that have begun to adopt laws to regulate artificial intelligence, such as the European Union countries, calling on Arab countries to benefit from this European experience, especially the growing interest and great development in the use of artificial intelligence technologies in the region.
Dr. Muhammad Abdel-Rahman from the Faculty of Law at Kuwait University noted the focus of this conference on the nature and nature of responsibility that can be assigned in the event of damage resulting from the use of artificial intelligence, pointing out the possibility that the conference will constitute a building block for launching cooperation between Arab countries to reach systems and legislation to regulate artificial intelligence.
The one day Law and Artificial Intelligence Conference includes several sessions discussing topics, the most prominent of which is Artificial Intelligence between the inevitability of reality and the legislative vacuum, the judicial challenges of artificial intelligence “criminal and civil liability, and judicial proceedings,” and artificial intelligence and the protection of human rights. The conference concludes with a session to present the most prominent recommendations that came out of the participants.
Source: Qatar News Agency