Workshop: AI and the Law

4th June 2019

On the Tuesday before half-term, a group of year 10s trialled a new workshop on artificial intelligence and the law. The session was created by Young Citizens to give students the opportunity to consider technological advancement over the last fifty years, and how this has made it necessary for the law to constantly evolve in order to deal with the new capabilities of AI.

Students began by discussing how technology has changed over the last half century, and then brainstorming all of the different products and services that have developed as a result of this, many of which are examples of artificial intelligence. We then debated the benefits and challenges of AI before going on to explore some recent legal cases. The scenarios included the news story that Facebook data from people who took part in a personality quiz was sold to Cambridge Analytica, who used this information without permission to help political campaigns, including the Brexit referendum campaign.  Students reflected on the ethics of each situation before learning about the laws surrounding these cases – including how they have caused the law to change. Finally, students considered the challenges of using the law to monitor the use of AI and started to think about additional ways of regulating technology.

Overall, it was a really interesting session, giving students a greater understanding of laws about the use of technology, and the opportunity to reflect on the benefits and challenges of the legal system. CamVC was very lucky to be asked to pilot the workshop, and we look forward to running more Young Citizens events in the future.

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