Artificial Intelligence Regulation: Theory and Practice

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Construct reasoned arguments based on premises drawn from various theoretical sources, demonstrating, also competence in problem solving in the conflict of laws.
• Competently undertake research tasks with minimum guidance.
• Use the full range of learning resources to analyse complex written texts and evaluate different types of arguments and communicate these arguments to a group of peers.
• Engage confidently in academic and professional communication with others, reporting on action clearly, autonomously and competently.
• Be an independent and self-critical learner, managing your own requirements for continuing professional development.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Assess AI laws in the EU, UK and other parts of the world, with reference to their respective rationale, approach, normative standards, procedural arrangements and objectives;
• Independently apply a legal framework governing AI technology to a real-life scenario involving a specific AI application and produce a reasoned argument.
• Independently analyse and interpretate applicable AI rules and principles, with reference to relevant national and supranational legal sources and academic literature
• Demonstrate advanced knowledge on how AI laws try to balance fostering innovation, with protection of individual rights and other public interest objectives, and related challenges.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The range of contemporary AI applications in various sectors and their current abilities.
• The theoretical discourse on the regulation of technology and how it underpins the analysis of AI regulation.
• The key legal and ethical risks and policy considerations associated with the development and implementation of AI.
• The inter-relationship between AI regulation and other regulatory fields, legal disciplines and technologies.
• The concept of AI and its forms (e.g., Machine-Learning), and how legal definitions of AI-related concepts reflect normative choices with socio-economic consequences

Proposed Seminar Outline

The list of topics to be covered in each seminar is putative, as the module leads will endeavour to ensure a dynamic selection of topics are covered during each academic year.

Theories of regulating technology

Foundational knowledge on AI and related concepts

AI applications, ethical risks & policy considerations

Regulating AI (I): EU AI Act (part 1)

Regulating AI (II): EU AI Act (part 2)

Regulating AI (II): UK, US and the rest of the world

Part II

Sector-specific case studies (determined based on contemporary relevance, and expertise of contributors to this module in the fields of (indicatively) healthcare, online platforms, digital currencies, employment, policing, sustainability, and warfare.

Teaching and learning methods

The module is taught by 9 two-hour weekly seminars and one two-hour revision session.

The most important part of learning is students’ own independent study. This will be closely guided, and firmly tied into the seminars and assessment. Seminar discussion will revolve around the main legal instruments, legal decisions, and scholarship thereon. Students will be expected to explain and evaluate the arguments that have been advanced in each (and the reasoning behind the jurisprudential decisions). In seminars, students will have the opportunity to present arguments orally to a group of peers, develop arguments collaboratively in a group setting and defend their position under challenge. E-learning facilities are provided through Blackboard. Computer-based quizzes will be used alongside the seminars to help provide a direction for study.

Preparation for and participation in seminars will develop student:

Knowledge of the basic forms of AI and their application in concrete settings through directed readings as per distributed reading lists;

Knowledge of the substantive principles and rules on AI regulation through directed readings as per distributed reading lists;

Critical thinking, including the development of questions for seminar discussion;

Ability to manage and access a diverse range of legal and political sources of law, including UK and European sources;

Ability to understand and analyze academic sources; and

Ability to critically evaluate those sources and to participate constructively in oral discussions in seminar settings concerning their content and application.

Formative and summative assessment will further foster student:

Ability to assess legal and academic sources and comment critically on them;

Problem solving and analysis skills;

Time management and research skills; and

Critical self-reflection on how formative results should frame summative responses.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.