This book provides a set of proposals for the new conceptual network required in order to establish civil law rules for a world permeated by Artificial Intelligence. These proposals are intended by their authors to push the debate on the new civil law forward. In spite of the natural conservatism of jurists, some innovative or even futuristic ideas are called for, also because the future, even this not-so-distant one, is difficult to foresee. Paradoxically, and unlike in the past, this lack of knowledge must not stop us from planning. If it does, humankind may, as some pessimists already claim, lose its chance to win the battle for control of the world. The rise and expansion of Artificial Intelligence and robotics in recent years has highlighted a pressing need to create a suitable legal framework for this new phenomenon. The debate on the subject, although wide-ranging and involving many new legal documents, is still quite general and preliminary in nature, although these preparatory works illustrate the very real need to develop appropriate new civil law arrangements. It is exactly the branch of private law where the necessity of these new rules appears to be the most imperative. Autonomous vehicles, medical robots, and expertise software raise fundamental questions on aspects of civil liability such as culpability; whereas the growth in popularity of automated, intelligent software systems for concluding contracts requires a new approach to many fundamental and deeply rooted elements of contract law, e.g. consciousness, intent, error, deception, interpretation of contracts and good faith. Ruling on these specific matters demands the identification and clarification of certain key points, which shall become the foundation for constructing AI/robot civil law.

This unique volume presents AI in relation to ethical points of view in handling big data sets. Issues such as algorithmic biases, discrimination for specific patterns and privacy breaches may sometimes be skewed to affect research results so that certain fields to appear more appealing to funding agencies. The discussion on the ethics of AI is highly complex due to the involvement of many international stakeholders such as the UN, OECD, parliaments, industry groups, professional bodies, and individual companies. The issue of reliability is addressed including the emergence of synthetic life, 5G networks, intermingling of human artificial intelligence, nano-robots and cyber security tools. Features Discusses artificial intelligence and ethics, the challenges and opportunities Presents the issue of reliability in the emergence of synthetic life, 5G networks, intermingling of human artificial intelligence, nano-robots, and cyber security tools Ethical responsibility and reasoning for using AI in Big Data Addresses practicing medicine and ethical issues when applying artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence and related technologies are changing both the law and the legal profession. In particular, technological advances in fields ranging from machine learning to more advanced robots, including sensors, virtual realities, algorithms, bots, drones, self-driving cars, and more sophisticated “human-like” robots are creating new and previously unimagined challenges for regulators. These advances also give rise to new opportunities for legal professionals to make efficiency gains in the delivery of legal services. With the exponential growth of such technologies, radical disruption seems likely to accelerate in the near future. This collection brings together a series of contributions by leading scholars in the newly emerging field of artificial intelligence, robotics, and the law. The aim of the book is to enrich legal debates on the social meaning and impact of this type of technology. The distinctive feature of the contributions presented in this edition is that they address the impact of these technological developments in a number of different fields of law and from the perspective of diverse jurisdictions. Moreover, the authors utilize insights from multiple related disciplines, in particular social theory and philosophy, in order to better understand and address the legal challenges created by AI. Therefore, the book will contribute to interdisciplinary debates on disruptive new AI technologies and the law.

This volume presents analyses of data protection systems and of 26 jurisdictions with data protection legislation in Africa, as well as additional selected countries without comprehensive data protection laws. In addition, it covers all sub-regional and regional data privacy policies in Africa. Apart from analysing data protection law, the book focuses on the socio-economic contexts, political settings and legal culture in which such laws developed and operate. It bases its analyses on the African legal culture and comparative international data privacy law. In Africa protection of personal data, the central preoccupation of data privacy laws, is on the policy agenda. The recently adopted African Union Cyber Security and Data Protection Convention 2014, which is the first and currently the only single treaty across the globe to address data protection outside Europe, serves as an illustration of such interest. In addition, there are data protection frameworks at sub-regional levels for West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. Similarly, laws on protection of personal data are increasingly being adopted at national plane. Yet despite these data privacy law reforms there is very little literature about data privacy law in Africa and its recent developments. This book fills that gap.

This volume tackles a quickly-evolving field of inquiry, mapping the existing discourse as part of a general attempt to place current developments in historical context; at the same time, breaking new ground in taking on novel subjects and pursuing fresh approaches. The term "A.I." is used to refer to a broad range of phenomena, from machine learning and data mining to artificial general intelligence. The recent advent of more sophisticated AI systems, which function with partial or full autonomy and are capable of tasks which require learning and 'intelligence', presents difficult ethical questions, and has drawn concerns from many quarters about individual and societal welfare, democratic decision-making, moral agency, and the prevention of harm. This work ranges from explorations of normative constraints on specific applications of machine learning algorithms today-in everyday medical practice, for instance-to reflections on the (potential) status of AI as a form of consciousness with attendant rights and duties and, more generally still, on the conceptual terms and frameworks necessarily to understand tasks requiring intelligence, whether "human" or "A.I."

This book examines the ability of citizens across ten European countries to exercise their democratic rights to access their personal data. It presents a socio-legal research project, with the researchers acting as citizens, or data subjects, and using ethnographic data collection methods. The research presented here evidences a myriad of strategies and discourses employed by a range of public and private sector organizations as they obstruct and restrict citizens' attempts to exercise their informational rights. The book also provides an up-to-date legal analysis of legal frameworks across Europe concerning access rights and makes several policy recommendations in the area of informational rights. It provides a unique and unparalleled study of the law in action which uncovered the obstacles that citizens encounter if they try to find out what personal data public and private sector organisations collect and store about them, how they process it, and with whom they share it. These are simple questions to ask, and the right to do so is enshrined in law, but getting answers to these questions was met by a raft of strategies which effectively denied citizens their rights. The book documents in rich ethnographic detail the manner in which these discourses of denial played out in the ten countries involved, and explores in depth the implications for policy and regulatory reform.