Tom Dent-Spargo

The power that online information and the routes of its dissemination have recently been made aware to the wider world in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election and the UK’s referendum to leave the European Union – the term “Cambridge Analytica Scandal” is a very familiar one.

An artificially intelligent system called DABUS (Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience), developed as part of “The Artificial Inventor Project”, is challenging the notion of whether AI can be listed as an “inventor” of patent applications.

An interview with Tim Deeson, CEO of Green Shoot Labs, which has partnered with the Cybercrime Helpline to create a new chatbot aimed at helping everyday users deal with issues of cybercrime.

Following recent comments from Supreme Court Justice Lord Kitchen, that current IP law is lagging behind advances in AI technology, Saiful Khan, partner and IP expert in electronics and computing at Potter Clarkson, asks, is it time for the UK to introduce a new category of short-term patent to help stimulate greater innovation from technology companies?

The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has certified the country’s first small category drone. Aarav Unmanned Systems’ (AUS) multicopter drone, called Insight, has been found compliant with the guidelines set by the DGCA under the No Permission, No Take-off (NPNT) protocol.

New research from Oxford Economics examines the effect that automation will have on the world, in particular how different regions will fare with the displacement and creation of jobs.

On 26th June, at a parliamentary inquiry into commercial and recreational drone use, the head of Unmanned Traffic Management at NATS, the Air Traffic experts in the U.K. Gave evidence to the Science & Technology Select Committee.

Amazon has been granted a patent for using delivery drones for surveillance. The company has said that this is primarily the customer's benefit, to survey for damage or anything out of the ordinary to the property.

Waymo (formerly the Google self-driving car project) has teamed up with Nissan and Renault, signing an agreement to work on the issues surrounding autonomous vehicles.

Doug Hargrove, Managing Director of Legal at Advanced, speaks about Scottish law firm Blackadders investing in Advanced’s ALB solution. Representing a significant new client in Scotland for the company, Doug speaks about the growth and learning points of integrating legal technology.

Researchers have discovered a method of “vaccinating” artificial intelligence (AI) from the latest wave of attacks. Hackers have been tricking AI systems using what is termed “adversarial attacks” where there is an added layer (the adversary) onto data, such as an extra layer of noise on an image.

Deloitte LLP has announced that it has earned a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop a Concept of Operations (ConOps) for urban air mobility (UAM).

Drones are increasingly being used by police and fire departments for a variety of tasks, from giving better overhead visuals to assist workers on the ground, improving the safety of firefighters, even being used in hostage situations. But this is just the start of how Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will be able improve the performance of public safety officials.

Michael Greco of Fisher Phillips shares his tips for how to avoid cyber breaches of liability with autonomous vehicles.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is implementing changes for recreational drone flyers mandated by Congress in the FAA Reauthorisation Act of 2018.

The deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) is a controversial and emotive subject, one that asks questions of human ethics and morals. Is it desirable or even possible to deploy morally sound LAWS?

In 2015 a startup in LA started to make waves with its use of UAVs in the insurance world. DropIn has continued to make progress, with its network of Droperators (drone operators) ready to survey and make an appraisal with live video streaming, facilitated by a UAV, significantly cutting down the time and financial investment normally associated with making a claim.

In February, leading UK insurance risk and commercial law firm BLM LLP, officially adopted iManage RAVN Extract to capture data from its documents to analyse and make accurate predictions around claims outcomes.

The UK has taken the official position to not promote the deployment of Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS), although its definition of AWS leaves open the possibility of developing such weapons. International pressure groups, such as the Campaign Against Killer Robots implore countries across the globe to take a firmer stance on the issue, and are appealing to the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

In the legal sector, 2018 saw artificial intelligence (AI) climb to the top of many law firms’ agenda, driven by the lure of the business benefits this new technology potentially offers alongside organisations’ perceived need to “innovate.”

It was the largest disruption to air travel since the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull descended upon the country in April 2010. Military assistance was called in, with some reports that it would be using Drone Dome, an Israeli counter-drone system. In the end, it was confirmed that an alternative system had been used in its place, as Drone Dome had not yet been delivered.

In recent years the US Navy has lagged behind international competitors Russia and China, which have looked to improve their anti-access technologies to protect their aircraft carriers.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has made a series of announcements across the first two months of 2019, as the country exited the government shutdown and normal service was resumed.

UK lawyer and author Jacob Turner addresses the legal and ethical problems that AI can cause in his new book, Robot Rules: Regulating Artificial Intelligence, published by Palgrave Macmillan.

The Internet of Things (IoT) will provide a number of different challenges to privacy and data protection. Examining these issues are Dr Kevin Curran, senior member of the IEEE and professor of cybersecurity in the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems at the University of Ulster, and Adam Brown, manager of security solutions at Synopsys.

On Wednesday 5 October, President Trump signed the FAA Reauthorisation Act of 2018, after the Senate had given final approval to the five year reauthorisation for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). It passed the Senate by a 93-6 vote, and is noteworthy as being the first five-year bill to be passed since the 1980s.

The Slovak Act on Cybersecurity took force on April 1 2018. It enshrines into national law part of a larger piece of legislation from the European Union (EU): the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (the NIS Directive).

At least three US states, including Washington, Illinois, and Wisconsin, activated National Guard cyber security units, keeping them on standby in case they were needed.

Leading drone manufacturer DJI has written a letter to the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) asking it to withdraw a misleading video and blog post about collisions between drones and traditional aircraft.

An interview with Erin Hichman, senior analyst at ALM Legal Intelligence.

As it stands, when an individual suffers an injury following a collision with, or in, a vehicle, as a result of a driver’s negligence, that individual is entitled to make a claim for compensation against that driver’s insurance company.

India’s drone regulation has, to this point, been very ad-hoc and fragmented, resulting in a drone industry that has not been able to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the technology. On 27th August, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced the country’s first Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) that will go into effect on 1st December 2018.

During the hurricane season last year, drones were deployed in areas affected by Harvey and Irma, showcasing UAS’ life-saving capabilities, and once again they have been instrumental in the relief efforts for areas affected by Hurricane Florence.

Integrating drones into airspace is an issue facing regulators globally, as safety concerns are prominent, while the economic potential of the technology needs to be allowed to develop and flourish. Managing this traffic with an effective system occupies many companies, hence the launch of U-Space, an initiative to implement pan-European Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM).

The African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) have released a report examining how drones can transform the welfare of agriculture on the continent, “Drones on the Horizon: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture”.

Alistair Kinsley, director of policy and government affairs at law firm BLM, speaks to the Robotics Law Journal about the issues that manufacturers and insurers face with the advent of driverless cars, as well as how the motor insurance industry is likely to change.

Artificial intelligence is at the heart of India’s economic strategy, according to finance minister Arun Jaitley. As part of his budget speech for 2018-19, Jaitley recognised the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform economies and the need for India to strategise its approach in order to maximise the benefits of the technology.

The UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) met on 31st August 2018 in Geneva, but no firm agreement over a ban of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) was reached.

Regulatory standards on drones are one step closer in Europe following approval by MEPs of an agreement between the Council and Parliament reached in November 2017 to revise the powers of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

A growing demand for AI education has seen a range of universities and institutions create new courses in the face of great demand. Carnegie Mellon university is the latest to launch an undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence (AI), claiming it is the first of its kind in the US.

While self-driving taxis make the headlines, both positively and negatively, the area of driverless trucks is also being quietly explored. Many start-ups across the world have begun to design and test autonomous trucks, with uses from haulage to port-based activities in China.

Last year saw the announcement of the Unmanned Aerial Systems Integration Pilot Program (UASIPP), a project seeking to bring together regulators and industry players, allowing testing of a variety of different applications of drones.

The Journal of Engineering and Technology Management has conducted research into attitudes of driverless cars in a closed environment, analysing the underlying factors affecting trust in driverless cars. The technology is seen as being a huge disruptor in the next technology revolution but a lack of trust is a principal barrier to its wide-scale adoption.

The issue of ownership of personal data has come under close scrutiny recently, as well as how much power companies have in this area. Until recently, this issue may have gone under the radar for many, with the concept of “data ownership” perhaps appearing to be too abstract to be taken seriously.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming ever-present, integrating with everyday technologies as well as assisting the operations of huge global businesses. In the future it promises to revolutionise areas such as healthcare, education, and transport. In becoming so widespread, there emerges a need to ensure that AI behaves in an ethical manner to minimise harm and maximise benefits.

The California Public Utilities Commission has put out a proposal authorising two pilot test programmes to legalise autonomous vehicle passenger services.

According to the US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aerospace Forecast Fiscal Report 2018-2038, air travel is in a strong place and will continue to grow over the next two decades. The report examines all of American aviation, including the emerging area of unmanned aviation, trends around the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) sector and is targeted at both hobbyists and commercial operators.

In the highest profile incident involving an autonomous vehicle, one of Uber’s self-driving vehicles collided with and killed a pedestrian crossing the road in Arizona, even though the car had a safety engineer riding behind the wheel.

DJI, the world leader in consumer drone technology demonstrated its continued partnership with commercial drone data company Skycatch with the announcement of the largest commercial drone order in history.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is powering China in its technological push. A law school in Peking University has opened a new research centre to examine how AI can impact China’s legal system. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have received a boost to their powers with AI-powered solutions for surveillance and monitoring. However, the recently enacted cybersecurity law raises some concerns beyond its stated jurisdiction.

Nesta has designed a programme called Flying High, in conjunction with Innovate UK, to develop plans to bring drones to five cities across the UK. Bradford, London, Preston, Southampton, and the West Midlands region (covering Birmingham, Coventry, and Wolverhampton) will be taking up the challenge to develop a path for the safe and effective integration of drones.

While the debate rages on over how to test and integrate autonomous vehicles and whether they will truly be safer, the insurance sector is preparing for the creation of a new and changed insurance market.

Mobile data forensics company MSAB has announced a new partnership with Kovar and Associates to expand the drone forensics capabilities offered by MSAB. David Kovar, the president and founder of Kovar & Associates, is a leading expert on drone forensics and he will serve as a subject matter expert and consultant to MSAB.

On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) hits the European Union (EU) in full, replacing the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. All member nations must have transferred it into their own national law by 6 May 2018. It will unify all the data protection and privacy laws across all member countries. In the run up to it taking full effect, companies are working out how best to comply.

Ford has submitted a patent application to develop autonomous police cars. It is a patent that has not yet been granted but demonstrates Ford’s intentions in how to break into the autonomous vehicle market.

Japanese commercial drone service company Terra Drone has commercialised an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system for the first time in Korea.

Last year, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a new programme to give regulation of the drone industry a boost. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao has announced the 10 state, local, and tribal governments that will participate.

In 2015, the issue of a non-human claiming copyright ownership erupted across the world when PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) launched a lawsuit against a photographer for the rights to a “monkey selfie”. Now, a US court has ruled that only humans can own copyright.

Following on from its examination of the effects of technology in the public sector last year, independent think tank Reform has released a report called Thinking on its own: AI in the NHS. It highlights the areas in which AI is currently deployed in the NHS, what its future uses can be, and what legal challenges need to be overcome to reach that destination.

In what is becoming a hyper-competitive industry, the fortunes of premier drone manufacturers DJI and GoPro are in stark contrast. American company GoPro has announced its plans to exit the business citing competitiveness of the sector as well as increasing regulation. Meanwhile, despite recent concerns over security, Chinese company DJI has confirmed its place as a leader in the market with its latest product.

On 1 December 2017, AI experts Enigma Pattern broke the infamous Enigma code in just thirteen minutes in a live demonstration. In an event designed to demonstrate the endless potential of AI, from diagnosing medical conditions to rendering judgements on whether someone should get a loan and cracking history’s trickiest code, Enigma Pattern also showcased the rising power of cloud computing and data centres.

Last year, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) released a report called Ethically Aligned Design, written with the purpose of advancing the discussion of how artificial intelligence and autonomous systems (AI/AS) can be aligned to moral values and ethical considerations that prioritise human wellbeing. The organisation opened it up to commentary and feedback from the public.

Last year was one of the safest on record, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced at a major industry safety event. Better regulation has enhanced health and safety with greater collaboration between the FAA and the marketplace making a difference.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have released a report titled “Workforce of the Future” based on research dating back to 2007 examining trends in the workplace and insights into what the future workforce will look like.

A five-track black metal album, titled, “Coditany of Timeness” has just been produced. The difference with this new piece of music is that it was created by an artificial intelligence.

The report “Growing the Artificial Intelligence Industry in the UK” by Professor Dame Wendy Hall and Jérôme Pesenti has come out of an industry-led review of how both industry and the government can create the conditions for AI to develop and innovate in the UK, as part of a broader Digital Strategy. It summarises the current level of AI activity in the UK, identifies the challenges to increasing that level of activity, and makes several recommendations to address those challenges.

On Friday 27 October, the results of CaseCrunch’s week-long competition to directly pit trained lawyers against CaseCrunch’s Artificial Intelligence were announced at a reception held at Kennedys law firm. The challenge: to predict the outcome of PPI mis-selling complaints.

The United Nations’ Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) met for the first time in November 2017, after their summer meeting was cancelled. They met for five days to open discussions on weapons systems that have the ability to identify and destroy targets entirely without human control. Such Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) are said to be almost ready for deployment, driving the need to legislate their use and set international standards.

“I taught an AI to empathise” is not a phrase one uses every day, but that’s exactly what the Deep Empathy program offers. A collaboration led by Scalable Cooperation at MIT Media Lab, and influenced by UNICEF Innovation, it seeks to pursue a scalable way to increase empathy.

One of the globe’s foremost drone manufacturers, DJI, has set up a training programme for the development of civilian drones for public safety at the Technology Base in Twente, Netherlands. In preparation of the programme, DJI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Space53, the Enschede-based public-private partnership for developing unmanned systems.

On 1 August, the Public Safety Aviation Accreditation Commission (PSAAC) released the first draft of standards for the use of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) by public safety agencies, in collaboration with the Airborne Law Enforcement Association (ALEA).

Independent UK think tank Reform has released a report called “Work in progress” examining the public sector, the issues surrounding its efficiency, and what can be done to reform and improve it for the future.

Ryan Abbott, Professor of Law and Health Sciences, University of Surrey School of Law, has proposed that AI and robots need to be treated as individuals with inventorship, especially as it relates to liability.

At the end of May this year, the European Parliament issued a paper, calling on the Commission to update the regulatory framework surrounding the area of robotics, with a request to consider that some forms of autonomous robots should be granted the status of “electric persons with specific rights and obligations”.

The Robotics Law Journal attended the Cybersecurity Ethics conference at the University of Hull in October and reports some key findings.

Recent experiments in AI have demonstrated how important emotions are to intelligence as well as highlighting how far there is to go. Talking with the head of Emoshape, a company that is creating Emotional Processing Units and examining attempts at implementing AI, Robotics Law Journal investigates.

Uber and Volvo are breaking ground by creating a new system of self-driving taxis available for users. The first signs of commercialised autonomous cars are here.

Last month, the Robotics Law Journal examined the value of the drone market, estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers to be $125 billion, in their report, ‘Clarity From Above’. Two companies have just announced advances in their drone capabilities that demonstrate the current and future value of drones, as outlined in the report.

Robotics Law Journal attended the Bio-Inspired Robotics Meetup hosted by ReWork in July. Three speakers gave some fascinating insights into very different fields, promising some great advancements for the future of robotics.

A new report from PWC looks at the potential future value of the drone market.

James Connelly, Professor of Political Theory at University of Hull and Director of the Institute of Applied Ethics, has just presented a paper at the 2016 Euro-ISME conference and is the principal investigator of the ESRC funded project, ‘The Common Good: Ethics, Rights and Cyber Security’. He discusses some of the questions surrounding the ethics of cyber counter-terrorism and the implications for legal systems with the Robotics Law Journal.

In response to a potential threat from drones, this year's European football championships, held in France, have had anti-drone technology deployed as part of its security measures.

Robotics Law Journal interviews Marc Beltran an aerospace engineer who works for CATUAV a drone manufacturer based outside Barcelona.

The flipside of the rapidly increasing Drone market is another market devoted to thwarting them.

One of the key discussions of WeRobot 2016 asks whether the First Amendment in the US could or should protect AI speech and even if a human participant is still a necessary component of free speech.

Will #BlackLivesMatter to RoboCop?

Some different options for the governance of robotics are discussed in the WeRobot 2016 Conference.

Driverless cars inherently lack predictability to those who will be using the same physical space - other human drivers and pedestrians. Human drivers demonstrate predictable movements due to a wide range of social cues that is not yet wired in to fully or semi-autonomous vehicles.

The 2016 WeRobot Conference, hosted by the University of Miami School of Law in early April, raised some important questions. The conference was a great success, striking up a dialogue about the important issues in the world of robotics – from the status of Robots in US law to the unpredictability of driverless cars and whether robots should be allowed free speech.