Navigating the legal aspects of AI

Generative AI is an emerging technology that has raised several legal implications with its development and usage. Intellectual property, identity, and copyright have been at the center of these legal debates, prompting lawmakers to consider legislation and other methods to protect individuals, corporations, and organizations. To use generative AI effectively and ethically, learn about emerging AI laws, legal issues, and concerns.

What AI legal concerns have been raised and addressed?

Efforts to address concerns and risks posed by AI through legislation have been limited. However, lawmakers have been attempting to respond quickly to emerging issues and establish best practices. Specifically, generative AI has raised concerns due to its ability to create text, video, music, pictures, and other forms of media. This capability raises AI legal issues, which include:

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Intellectual property and copyright infringement

Generative AI poses a risk to intellectual property due to its training methods. These AI tools are trained on a wealth of data scraped from the internet—including copyrighted data, like writing, art, and music. Many artists have raised concerns about AI stealing the artistry of others due to its ability to recreate art in seconds with a single prompt input.

Data privacy

AI relies on data to train itself to make predictions to accurately respond to a user’s prompt input. This can include personal information such as your name, location, and other sensitive personal information. While some companies that use AI tools, like Microsoft, have protective measures in place to keep data safe, it’s always important to change the password to your AI account regularly and stay on the lookout for suspicious activities.

Bias and discrimination

Bias and discrimination in AI pose legal concerns, as systems trained on biased data can lead to discrimination. This can affect hiring, lending, law enforcement, and healthcare. It also raises legal concerns under existing anti-discrimination laws, as neglecting to address these issues may lead to legal liabilities, lawsuits, and regulatory penalties. For business owners and developers, it’s important to be cognizant of these risks as you integrate AI into your practices and processes.

Deepfakes and individual likeness

Deepfakes are images generated by AI that are trained on the images of real people to recreate their likeness. In other words, they are fake images of people. Deepfakes are often used for malicious and illegal purposes, such as spreading false information, defaming people, or committing fraud. Additionally, using someone’s likeness without their expressed permission infringes on privacy laws, which can result in lawsuits.

Confidentiality breaches

For organizations and businesses, it’s important to be cognizant of what data AI has access to. Certain financial, technical, and strategic information may be classified as confidential information. Consequently, when using generative AI, it’s important to consider what data is inputted to ensure your data is protected.

AI is here to stay, and it’s only going to continue to improve over time. That’s why legislation on AI and developing ethical AI use habits are more needed than ever. For other ways to build awareness around your AI usage, learn more from everyday AI.