Is the U.S. Legal System Ready for AI's Challenges to Human Values?

TL;DR

This paper examines the adequacy of U.S. laws in addressing the challenges posed by Generative AI to fundamental human values, highlighting gaps and proposing the need for evolving legal frameworks.

Contribution

It provides an interdisciplinary analysis of legal gaps concerning AI's impact on human values and advocates for proactive, adaptable legal guidelines.

Findings

Legal gaps in protecting privacy, autonomy, and dignity from AI harms

Difficulty in proving causation for AI-related defamation and liability

Need for interdisciplinary collaboration to develop adaptive legal frameworks

Abstract

Our interdisciplinary study investigates how effectively U.S. laws confront the challenges posed by Generative AI to human values. Through an analysis of diverse hypothetical scenarios crafted during an expert workshop, we have identified notable gaps and uncertainties within the existing legal framework regarding the protection of fundamental values, such as privacy, autonomy, dignity, diversity, equity, and physical/mental well-being. Constitutional and civil rights, it appears, may not provide sufficient protection against AI-generated discriminatory outputs. Furthermore, even if we exclude the liability shield provided by Section 230, proving causation for defamation and product liability claims is a challenging endeavor due to the intricate and opaque nature of AI systems. To address the unique and unforeseeable threats posed by Generative AI, we advocate for legal frameworks that evolve to recognize new threats and provide proactive, auditable guidelines to industry stakeholders. Addressing these issues requires deep interdisciplinary collaborations to identify harms, values, and mitigation strategies.