Northwestern Master of Science in Law (MSL) students often find themselves thinking about the cutting edge of technological development, so it is not a surprise that several symposium presentations focused on issues raised by the rapid evolution and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).  While many of the symposium presentations mentioned artificial intelligence (it’s everywhere!), the three presentations included in this post zeroed in on particular issues related to the use of AI.

To learn more about the 2022 MSL Symposium, please check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.

Rory Fitzpatrick draws on her experience in the MSL class Assessing AI & Computational Technologies to discuss a set of tools – often referred to as “soft law” – that can potentially be deployed more quickly than full-fledged legislation and regulation to deal with emerging issues in the use of algorithms. Rory was a full-time MSL student, and you can read more about her in an upcoming blog post.

Kara Ferracuti discusses an issue that comes up in a variety of contexts when the regulators don’t keep up with the regulated: lawyers are increasingly using AI to provide legal services but the American Bar Association’s (ABA) rules of professional and ethical conduct do not yet fully address this shift. Kara is a part-time student in the MSL program.

Sravya Prabhala, also a part-time MSL student, considers the question of where we are headed with respect to responsible use of AI and explores how we can reach the big picture goal of human-machine harmony.