Welcome to Degen Lawyer's Newsletter, where we bring you your weekly dose of legal insights, and regulatory updates in the emerging tech and law space. Our expert lawyers serve up curated analysis, hot takes, and expert commentary, sprinkled with a healthy dose of wacky and meme-worthy content. Enjoy!

In this week’s edition:

News in short:

1. UK to exercise caution when using AI in autonomous weapons

   The Artificial Intelligence in Weapon Systems Committee in the UK published its report on ‘Use of AI in weapons systems’. Key recommendations include defining AI weapons clearly, maintaining human control over AI weapons, and taking a greater role in international efforts to regulate these weapons. The report argues that while AI can provide strategic benefits it must be used very cautiously. AI has spread into many vital sectors and defence is no exception. Drones have been used for a while now and AI Tech means things can get out of hand pretty quickly. Terminator style.

2. EU’s New Cybersecurity Act a step closer to reality

   EU institutions reached a provisional agreement on the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which will impose new cybersecurity requirements on products with digital elements, including software, hardware, and data processing. The Bill awaits approval by the European Parliament and Council. The CRA has had a bumpy road, with constant pushback from cyber security experts and industry. As always EU’s pushing the boundaries when it comes to new tech.

3. India clarifies stance on foreign exchanges

   The Ministry of Finance has clarified that off-shore Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers (VDA SP) such as Binance & Coinbase will be required to follow Anti Money Laundering (AML/ CFT) guidelines under Money Laundering Laws in India. This finally brings them on par with Indian SP. The govt has also released a list of companies that have registered as VDAs with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Failure to follow the law and register with governing entities will lead to heavy penalties. This is a strong move, the Indian govt. recognises the importance of the Indian market to international exchanges. It’s also a big win for Indian exchanges who have seen their trading volumes dip due to Indians using Binance to avoid paying taxes. 

4. India reaching for the stars with privatisation push in space exploration

   Following the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, The Indian National Space Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) has set a target to increase private investments to 15% by 2047, the 100th year of independence. This is an all-out push in the belief that increased private-sector participation will ultimately translate into economic growth. However, it may take a show of long-term commitment from the government to instil confidence. But hey, there will be those grabbing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a mark in this budding space, and an opportunity to reach for the stars (yes pun intended)

   

Article of the week

AI Weapons - LAWS or no LAWS

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear Terminator? Rogue scary as shit AI, right? While it may seem like a fantasy far off in the future, it isn’t. The discussion on  Lethal Autonomous Weapons System (LAWS) has grown in recent years. Many countries are developing LAWS without clear legislative and regulatory guidance. A recent UN resolution has brought to the forefront the urgency of creating an international agreement on regulating LAWS.

LAWS Explained

The term LAWS refers to AI-driven weapons. While there is no universal understanding of what class of weapons constitutes LAWS, the common wisdom is that when a weapon can identify, select and apply force without human intervention, it falls under the category of LAWS i.e. it must be autonomous in its functions.

While AI is not a prerequisite for the functioning of LAWS, incorporating AI could further enable such systems. Currently, to our public knowledge at least, no fully autonomous weapons systems are capable of performing all functions autonomously, from identifying the target to pulling the trigger, without a single human being in the loop.

The Ethical Conundrum

Regulating LAWS is crucial due to the ethical dilemmas they pose. Weapons severely affect the lives and liberties of human beings, given their ability to inflict great harm, ranging from disability to death. Traditionally, a human takes the call on when to use a weapon, but with AI, things get complicated. Should AI be allowed to select, target, injure or kill human beings? What if its pattern recognitions make it a better predictor of danger than humans? To what level can it assist humans in such decision-making?

These questions challenge the very fundamental rights to life and liberty enshrined in constitutions the world over.

Many countries including Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia and France, have raised concerns over the ethical implications of using LAWS. Even the sovereign Government of Vatican City, led by the Pope, has expressed grave ethical concerns over the inability of pre-programmed, automated technical systems to make moral judgements over life and death, respect human rights and comply with the principles of humanity.

International responses on the regulation of LAWS

Internationally, there have been mixed responses to the development and emergence of LAWS. Some countries have called for an outright ban. For instance, Pakistan had taken the lead on calling for a complete ban on LAWS. Bolivia also supports a ban on the development or deployment of LAWS, emphasizing that the right to life should not be delegated to a machine.

On the contrary, some other countries argue it’s too early to regulate the development of LAWS exclusively because they believe that adequate safeguards are already in place. Given their heavy investments in AI-based weaponry, countries such as China, Israel and Russia, among others, are actively resisting any attempts at regulating LAWS. The United States has been a significant proponent of this argument, pushing back against any multilateral convention on regulating LAWS.

A third category of countries, consisting of Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, among others, believe that meaningful human control must be central when developing LAWS and that regulatory efforts have to move in that direction. For instance, Sri Lanka has called for an internationally binding regulation on the development and deployment of LAWS, with meaningful human control as its central thrust. But human control goes against a popular definition of LAWS, wherein weapons systems operate without any human control.

If such a definition is adopted, then it would result in irreconcilable differences with the jurisprudence offered by Sri Lanka.

International regulations?

Internationally, the most significant efforts to formulate regulations have been through the Group of Government Experts (GGE), set up under the aegis of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). But the discussions are largely viewed as a failure, despite having been set up a decade ago. UN’s efforts to regulate LAWS have been limited to passing UNGA resolutions outlining the need for regulation. 

While the picture seems bleak, there is a hope that the emphasis on the need for regulation of LAWS by the UNGA may influence & set the context for an international covenant regulating LAWS (in the near future, we hope)

 Concluding thoughts

All in all, the regulation surrounding LAWS is at a very nascent stage. The use of AI in warfare, though reprehensible, is unavoidable, given the mistrust among the global giants. For now, we hope that regulations around LAWS lead to the safe and responsible use of AI, even if it is in weaponry. 

Did You Know?

Robots have been featured in mythology since time immemorial. Philosophers such as Aristotle predicted robots, inventors like Leonardo Da Vinci even made designs for a robot! But have you ever wondered how they came to be known as ‘robots’?

The word robot is derived from the Czech word ‘robota’, which means ‘forced labour’. Interestingly, it was used to denote peasants forced to work for their feudal lords.

The first actual usage of the word robot for man-made machines that worked autonomously was in a 1920 play, Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R), by Karel Capek, who depicted how robots would overthrow their creators. Since then, there’s been no looking back!

Now there’s something to say about the fact that the very first time it was used, was so very ominous!

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