Recognizing Lawyers as AI Creators and Intermediaries in Contestability

TL;DR

This paper explores the underrecognized roles of lawyers as creators and intermediaries in AI contestability, emphasizing their influence on regulation, design, and interpretation within socio-technical systems.

Contribution

It introduces the novel perspective of lawyers' dual roles in shaping AI contestability and offers practical recommendations for integrating legal expertise into AI system design.

Findings

Lawyers influence AI design through regulation creation.

Legal interpretation affects responses to AI harm.

Legal roles impact AI contestability and stakeholder navigation.

Abstract

Laws play a key role in the complex socio-technical system impacting contestability: they create the regulations shaping the way AI systems are designed, evaluated, and used. Despite their role in the AI value chain, lawyers' impact on contestability has gone largely unrecognized in the design of AI systems. In this paper, we highlight two main roles lawyers play that impact contestability: (1) as AI Creators because the regulations they create shape the design and evaluation of AI systems before they are deployed; and (2) as Intermediaries because they interpret regulations when harm occurs, navigating the gap between stakeholders, instutions, and harmful outcomes. We use these two roles to illuminate new opportunities and challenges for including lawyers in the design of AI systems, contributing a significant first step in practical recommendations to amplify the power to contest systems through cross-disciplinary design.