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NLJ this week: Do we really need legislation on AI?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
31 January 2025
Issue: 8102 / Categories: Legal News , Artificial intelligence , Technology , Regulatory , Profession
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Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may be developing fast but—contrary to popular opinion—the ’panicked rush to legislation’ to regulate it is not necessary, writes Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation & adjunct professor, IE University Law School, in this week’s NLJ.

McDougall questions the popular belief that AI is in urgent need of more legislation. In this very readable article, he explains why AI may be ‘a fantastic, epoch-making, fourth-Industrial Revolution-making, complicated computer program’ but the bulk of issues it creates are already covered by existing legislation.

Moreover, as he demonstrates, AI is extremely difficult to define. He writes that ‘the real philosophical problem with all of these legislative attempts is that they are trying to regulate for either something that already exists and is covered by existing law, or something that does not exist and may never exist: truly self-aware AI’. 
Issue: 8102 / Categories: Legal News , Artificial intelligence , Technology , Regulatory , Profession
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