April 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Financial Times reported thatUAEAttempts are being made to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to develop newlawand to review and revise existing laws. The move is the country's most radical attempt after investing billions of dollars in artificial intelligence.
The program, dubbed "AI-powered regulation," is reportedly stronger than in any other country, where governments have mostly tried to use AI to improve efficiency, such as summarizing bills or improving public service delivery.However, no country has yet utilized AI to proactively propose changes to the law.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler and Vice President of Dubai, UAE, said, "This new AI-powered legislative system will change the way we make laws, making the process faster and more precise." Last week, the UAE Cabinet approved the creation of a new Cabinet unit -- the Office of Regulatory Intelligence -- dedicated to overseeing the advancement of AI in the legislative arena.
Ronnie Medaglia, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, noted that the UAE appears to have the potential goal of "transforming AI into some kind of co-legislator," calling the plan "very bold."
Abu Dhabi is heavily invested in AI, and last year established a dedicated investment vehicle, MGX, which has backed a number of investments including BlackRock's $30 billion AI Infrastructure Fund.MGX has also added an AI observer to its board.
According to 1AI, the UAE plans to use AI to track the impact of laws on the country's population and economy by creating a massive database of federal and local laws as well as public sector data such as court decisions and government services. According to Sheikh Mohammed.AI will "regularly suggest updates to our legislation" and the government expects AI to speed up legislation by 70%.
However, the researchers noted thatThere are many challenges and pitfalls that this program may face. These issues include AI becoming difficult for users to understand, bias caused by training data, and questions about whether AI interprets the law in the same way as humans. Oxford researcher Vincent Straub warns, "As impressive as AI models are, they still suffer from 'illusions,' reliability problems, and robustness issues. We cannot trust them."
Straub also noted that the UAE's program is particularly novel in that it includes the use of AI to anticipate changes in laws that may be needed, which could potentially save the government the costs it typically pays law firms to review legislation.
It is unclear which AI system the UAE government will use, and experts say a combination of systems may be needed. However, researchers emphasize that setting limits for AI and human oversight is crucial. University of Bath computer scientist Marina DeVos said, "AI may make some 'very strange' suggestions that may make sense to a machine, but may be pointless to actually implement in a human society."