More than half a century after the term "artificial intelligence" or "AI" was born, AI in a broad sense has acquired the position of becoming a kind of universal technology that is used for every industrial field in some way or another. In particular, the AI that appeared since the 2000s employs the technology called "machine learning," which identifies patterns from huge data. It has led the "third AI boom" that is continuing until today and has triggered technological revolutions one after another. Recently, the focus of attention is generative AI, which generates new content, such as images and sentences, through machine learning. The presence of AI in the industrial world is expected to be even greater.

For companies to bring the best out of AI and use it appropriately, it is important to accurately understand and handle the legal risks hidden behind the use of such technology. Various potential risks have started to be pointed out, such as, the risk of infringement of privacy or intellectual property rights when a machine learning data set contains personal information or the creative works of other persons, as well as the risk of violation of antitrust laws related to the oligopoly of data. In addition, new legal issues should not be ignored, such as discrimination arising from corporate activities depending on the AI's output, and the allocation of liability in case of an accident (for example, a traffic accident caused by an autonomous vehicle).

With extensive experience in supporting various companies that aim at developing and making use of AI technology, our firm can provide proactive legal advice that goes beyond merely pointing out the risks thereof.