Virtual Cyber Policy Talk:The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law

Description

AI and people do not compete on a level-playing field. Self-driving vehicles may be safer than human drivers, but laws often penalize such technology. People may provide superior customer service, but businesses are automating to reduce their taxes. AI may innovate more effectively, but an antiquated legal framework constrains inventive AI. In The Reasonable Robot, Ryan Abbott argues that the law should not discriminate between AI and human behavior and proposes a new legal principle that will ultimately improve human well-being.

Professor Ryan Abbott is highly regarded for his scholarship, teaching, and professional activities. His legal research has focused in three areas: the impact of AI and technological advances, intellectual property issues in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, and the use of informational regulation and market-based mechanisms by health regulatory agencies. His work on AI has included recent publications in the UCLA Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, George Washington Law Review, Harvard Law and Policy Review, and the Boston College Law Review on autonomous machines and accident law, tax policy, and intellectual property, respectively. His work with health regulatory agencies has included publications in the Duke Law Journal and the Iowa Law Review. His monograph, "The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law" is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press in 2019.

Professor Abbott has worked as general counsel and medical director of a mid-stage biotechnology company, and has been of counsel at law firms where he specialized in intellectual property litigation and transactional matters for pharmaceutical and medical device clients. He has served as a consultant for international organizations, academic institutions and non-profit enterprises including the European Commission, World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Professor Abbott has also worked as an expert witness which has included testifying in U.S. federal court.

Professor Abbott is a licensed physician, attorney, and acupuncturist in the United States, as well as a solicitor (non-practicing) in England and Wales. He is board certified by the American Board of Legal Medicine. Professor Abbott is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine (M.D.) and the Yale Law School (J.D.), as well as a Summa Cum Laude graduate from Emperor's College (M.T.O.M.) and a Summa Cum Laude graduate from University of California, Los Angeles (B.S.).  He is a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a member of the California and New York State Bars. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

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