The Massachusetts Lawyer Basic’s Workplace (AGO) lately issued an advisory clarifying that present Massachusetts regulation applies to synthetic intelligence (AI) to the identical extent as every other product within the stream of commerce.
Massachusetts Lawyer Basic Andrea Campbell turned the primary legal professional common within the nation to share such steering about AI. The advisory opens with a tribute to AI’s potential societal advantages and notes the Commonwealth’s particular place in guiding the know-how’s growth.
Nevertheless, the advisory’s central goal is a warning to AI builders, suppliers, and customers that Massachusetts regulation, together with the Massachusetts Client Safety Act (Chapter 93A), applies to AI. This Act makes it illegal to have interaction in unfair or misleading enterprise acts within the state of Massachusetts.
The AGO shared the next non-exhaustive listing of unfair or misleading AI enterprise acts:
- Falsely promoting the standard, worth, or usability of AI programs.
- Supplying an AI system that’s faulty, unusable, or impractical for the aim marketed.
- Misrepresenting the reliability, method of efficiency, security, or circumstances of an AI system, together with statements that the system is free from bias.
- Providing on the market an AI system in breach of guarantee in that the system shouldn’t be match for the extraordinary goal for which such programs are used, or that’s unfit for the particular goal for which it’s offered the place the provider is aware of of such goal.
- Misrepresenting audio or video of an individual for the aim of deceiving one other to have interaction in a enterprise transaction or provide private data as if to a trusted enterprise associate as within the case of deepfakes, voice cloning, or chatbots used to have interaction in fraud.
- Failing to adjust to Massachusetts statutes, guidelines, laws, or legal guidelines, meant for the safety of the general public’s well being, security, or welfare.
The advisory leaves an vital word reminding companies that AI programs are required to adjust to privateness safety, discrimination, and federal shopper safety legal guidelines.
AI Regulation will Proceed to Enhance
You possibly can fairly count on that AI will more and more be the topic of recent regulation and litigation on the state and federal ranges. On the nationwide degree, the Biden administration issued an Govt Order in October 2023 directing numerous federal businesses to regulate to the rising utility and dangers of synthetic intelligence. Within the wake of that Govt Order, the Federal Commerce Fee has already taken its first steps towards AI regulation in a proposed rule prohibiting AI from impersonating human beings. The Division of Labor has introduced ideas that may apply to the event and deployment of AI programs within the office, and different federal businesses have additionally taken motion.
In 2024, Colorado and Utah state lawmakers handed their very own AI legal guidelines that may doubtless function fashions to different states contemplating AI laws. Each the Colorado Synthetic Intelligence Act and Utah’s Synthetic Intelligence Coverage Act serve to deliver AI use throughout the scope of present state shopper safety legal guidelines. Reflecting the AGO’s warning, plaintiffs have already began asserting privateness and shopper claims based mostly on AI know-how on enterprise web sites.
On the worldwide degree, the EU Synthetic Intelligence Act of March 13, 2024 is an intensive AI regulation that separates AI purposes into totally different threat ranges and regulates them accordingly. Unacceptable threat purposes are banned, whereas excessive threat purposes are topic to in depth precautionary measures and oversights. AI builders and suppliers doing enterprise in Europe ought to think about whether or not they’re topic to the EU AI Act and guarantee their product complies.
Getting ready for AI Compliance, Enforcement, and Litigation Dangers
There are excessive ranges of uncertainty surrounding how AI can be deployed sooner or later, and the way legislators, lawmakers, and courts will apply new and present legal guidelines to the know-how.
Nevertheless, it’s doubtless that compliance obligations and enforcement and litigation dangers will proceed to extend within the coming years. Companies ought to subsequently seek the advice of with skilled counsel earlier than deploying or contracting to make use of new AI instruments to make sure they’re taking efficient steps to mitigate these dangers. Organizations ought to think about the next non-exhaustive listing of measures:
- Creating an inner AI coverage governing the group’s and its staff’ use of AI within the office.
- Creating and/or updating due diligence practices to make sure that the group is conscious of how third-party distributors are utilizing, or plan to make use of, AI, together with due diligence regarding what knowledge is collected, transmitted, saved, and used when coaching AI instruments with machine studying.
- Actively monitoring state and federal legal guidelines for brand spanking new authorized developments affecting the group’s compliance obligations.
- Making certain that the group and its third-party distributors have acceptable and ongoing governance processes in place, together with steady monitoring and testing for AI high quality and absence of impermissible bias.
- Offering clear disclosure language regarding AI instruments, capabilities, and options, together with particular notifications when a buyer engages with an AI assistant or device.
- Modifying privateness insurance policies and phrases and circumstances to clarify the usage of AI know-how and what opt-out or dispute decision phrases can be found to prospects.
- Reviewing and updating present third-party contracts for AI-related phrases, disclosure obligations regarding AI and threat, and legal responsibility allocation associated to AI.
