Publication
Is the output of the generative AI system protected by intellectual property rights?
The approach and requirements for intellectual property rights to subsist in computer-generated works vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Artificial Intelligence: The ethical and legal implications
Global | Publication | August 2017
There is much excitement and hype about artificial intelligence
Both incumbent and start-up technology vendors are offering new and innovative AI-enabled products and services.
Businesses in a wide range of industry sectors are pursuing AI strategies.
AI is now firmly on the Board agenda and revenue spend in the AI market is expected to be worth more than US$46 billion by 2020.
The automation of decision-making processes is not new
Software can make “decisions” when specified criteria are satisfied (for example, “buy” and “sell” decisions); and humans can use AI to help improve the quality of their own decision-making. Unlike other software, however, AI can make decisions autonomously without any human involvement.
AI has huge potential to bring accuracy, efficiencies, cost savings and speed to a whole range of formerly human activities and to provide entirely new insights into market and customer behaviour. It has the capability to transform businesses and the services and products they offer.
A decision to adopt AI can raise fundamental ethical and moral issues for society. These complex issues are of vital importance to our future, but they are not typically the domain of lawyers.
Our site focuses on the more granulars ethical and related legal risks that need to be managed by a business developing or using AI in whatever industry sector it occupies. As legal responsibility is a subset of moral (or ethical) responsibility, for AI to gain acceptance and be trusted in a given sector, a business will need to take into account the ethical considerations and the legal factors that flow from them.
Recent publications
Publication
Decree 100/2025 – Key features and impact on gas-fired thermal power projects in Vietnam
Decree 56/2025/ND-CP (Decree 56) came into effect in Vietnam on 3 March 2025. Among other things (and particularly from the perspective of gas-fired thermal power projects), Decree 56 sets out the principles of transferring fuel price (whether domestic gas or LNG) to the electricity price and the minimum long term contracted electricity output for gas-fired thermal power projects.
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .