Regulators need to ‘actively’ encourage lawtech and innovation, including artificial intelligence (AI), the Legal Services Board (LSB) has said
In a letter to technology minister Michelle Donelan and Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk this week, it set out its commitment to AI, including engaging with regulators ‘to understand their capacity and capabilities in relation to the regulation of the use of AI’ and seeking to foster collaboration on the sharing of best practice.
Its paper ‘Guidance on promoting technology and innovation to improve access to legal services’, issued last week, sets three outcomes for the legal regulators.
First, regulation should enable the use of technology and innovation to improve access and address unmet legal need. Second, it should balance the benefits and risks, opportunities and costs of technology in the interests of the public. Third, it should ‘actively’ foster an environment that is open to technology providers and innovators.
LSB chair Alan Kershaw said: ‘We now expect the regulators to embrace our ambition and move with appropriate pace.’