The Law Society: Current laws are fit for the AI era

As ministers push to loosen rules to speed up AI adoption, The Law Society argues that lawyers just need to know how current laws apply.

The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) recently launched a call for evidence on a proposed ‘AI Growth Lab’. This cross-economy sandbox is designed to accelerate the deployment of autonomous technologies by granting “time-limited regulatory exemptions” to firms. The government’s position is that many regulations are outdated, having been designed before autonomous software existed, often assuming that decisions are made by people rather than machines.

Ministers believe that if the UK can move faster than its global competitors, it can secure a defining economic advantage, with a potential  £140 billion boost to national output by 2030. Their preliminary analysis specifically flags legal services as a sector where removing “unnecessary legal barriers” could generate billions in value over the next decade.

Yet, the legal profession – supposedly the beneficiary of this deregulation – isn’t asking for exemptions. In its formal response, the Law Society made clear that the existing framework is robust enough. The friction lies not in the rules thems...