Perkins Coie is pleased to present the fifth edition of Labor Law Today—Year in Review, which provides a summary of significant developments in traditional labor law over the past year.

Welcome back to Today’s Most Disruptive Technologies! We turn from quantum computing to a spotlight on multimodal AI. Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to dominate the news and the markets and while some of us are still mulling over existential questions of what it means to be human, AI is about to take yet another fast turn—AI is going multimodal.

In his prescient 1994 book, Copyright’s Highway, Professor Paul Goldstein of Stanford Law School popularized the term “the celestial jukebox” for his prediction of a future where consumers could stream on-demand over the Internet any music, film, TV show, or other entertainment work. Professor Goldstein’s foresight anticipated the rise of massive cloud streaming platforms like Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, well before their inception.

AI-generated robocalls may trick some consumers into thinking they are being called by a human being, but the Federal Communications Commission clarified in a recent AI Declaratory Ruling that it will not be fooled.

Shirin Malkani and John Delaney authored an article for Bloomberg Law titled "AI at Super Bowl Raises Contract, Copyright Issues for Pro Sports" that assesses the legality and consequences of using AI on and off the playing field. 

The Federal Trade Commission announced its first enforcement action alleging that discriminatory use of artificial intelligence was an unfair practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act on December 19, 2023.

As any lawyer working around corporations has no doubt observed, artificial intelligence (AI), and especially generative AI, has the potential to be a game changer for companies seeking to streamline operations, improve efficiencies, and fast-track content creation.

After a series of intensive negotiations among representatives of the European Union’s three governing bodies, the EU has concluded its “trilogue” meetings with a “political agreement” on the terms of its forthcoming Artificial Intelligence Act.

The last few months have seen a flurry of activity in cases involving artificial intelligence (AI), including some of the first major rulings involving generative AI.

Host Jordan Becker explores the evolving world of AI, discussing burning questions.

John Delaney and Sean West authored an article for Law360 regarding the seven copyright and AI questions courts need to address.

Christopher Wilkinson wrote an article published in Bloomberg Law titled "Employers, Take Notice as the DOL Crafts White House AI Mandates," where he considers the Department of Labor’s new responsibilities under the White House’s artificial intelligence executive order, spanning issues such as discrimination, immigration, and worker displacement.

The White House recently issued its most extensive policy directive yet concerning the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) through a 100-plus-page Executive Order (EO) titled "Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” and accompanying “Fact Sheet” summary.

With all of the hubbub surrounding the growing wave of generative artificial intelligence (AI) lawsuits, a recent court decision involving a generative AI-powered app has received surprisingly little attention, despite addressing issues that will be relevant in other, higher profile AI litigation.

In her article titled "Thinking About AI—Considerations for Boards of Directors" published in The Investment Lawyer's November issue, Molly Moynihan provides clarity on AI, explores its potential impact on fund operations, discusses its applications and regulatory framework, and offers considerations for directors overseeing funds and advisers.

The generative AI revolution has arrived. Will copyright law snuff it out? 

Hollywood is no stranger to artificial intelligence, or AI. Filmmakers have relied on AI for decades to enhance and accelerate their audiovisual productions.

Among the many open questions about large-language models (LLMs) and generative artificial intelligence (AI) are the legal risks that may result from AI-generated content.

From artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can generate highly sophisticated art, music, and conversation to technology capable of recreating Elvis on the big screen, a recent explosion and maturing of generative  AI technologies is disrupting all forms of content.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced new policies on September 14, 2023, regarding its use and acquisition of artificial intelligence technologies, including facial recognition and face capture technologies.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced new policies on September 14, 2023 regarding its use and acquisition of artificial intelligence technologies, including facial recognition and face capture technologies. DHS also appointed Eric Hysen as the department’s first chief AI officer.

Watershed technological developments can offer new entrants the opportunity to challenge market leaders. These rare paradigm shifts redefine how companies compete for customers and resources.

The growing use of video and automated technology, including artificial intelligence, in employment practices—and the concern that the technology may foster bias—has triggered a wide array of regulatory efforts.

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on the feasibility, benefits, and limitations of techniques that can help advance the FCC’s understanding of “nonfederal” spectrum usage.

Employers are increasingly utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) tools supplied by third-party vendors.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) unveiled his much-anticipated, bipartisan legislative framework for regulating artificial intelligence during recent public remarks. To support this new framework and the resulting policy proposals, Senator Schumer has formed a bipartisan AI working group that will work closely with the leaders of the Senate’s Commerce, Homeland Security, Antitrust, Judiciary, and Intelligence committees to shape the draft legislation.

Crafting an appropriate AUP for generative AI is a process that requires careful consideration and collaboration across multiple departments. Each policy will be different, reflecting the company’s business needs and culture, the nature of the intended uses of such tools, and the company’s level of risk tolerance in light of its industry and the applicable evolving legal and regulatory landscape.

Across every industry, companies are leveraging machine learning to derive valuable insights without extensive employee involvement. These groundbreaking capabilities are creating an upheaval in how companies engage with competitors and consumers.

The National Science and Technology Council recently bolstered the Biden administration’s continued focus on responsible AI development by announcing an update to the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan.

Use of generative AI in the legal profession offers the potential for significant advancement but also poses risks. Court orders issued last week by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, along with a recent show cause order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, each highlights some of the risks that in-house counsel and litigators should consider when using these new technologies in litigation matters.

Antitrust is the engine of free enterprise: it shapes countless lines of commerce, from tech to toilets, beer to baseball and healthcare to hardware.

A surprising, unannounced collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd—a song called “Heart on My Sleeve”—went viral on social media a few weeks ago.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provided guidance indicating that, in its view, employers are generally liable for the outcomes of using selection tools to make employment decisions. 

The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection adopted final rules for Local Law 144 on April 6, 2023. 

As the hype about generative artificial intelligence (AI) has grown, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made clear that it intends to be at the forefront of federal agencies working to ensure the responsible use of AI.

The EU was in the process of implementing its AI Act, first proposed on April 21, 2021, before generative AI chatbots were widely released. This Update provides a fresh look at the AI Act’s legislative status and its substantive evolution before it becomes legally effective.

Recent weeks have seen action from various European regulators regarding artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and algorithms.

The recent dramatic growth of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies continues to be a focus of the Biden administration.

This Update is the second in a three-part series on legal issues surrounding generative technologies. This second installment discusses the initial lawsuits filed involving these technologies and how these issues may be addressed by the courts for the first time.

There have been two important developments in recent weeks regarding the U.S. Copyright Office’s position on registering works created by the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. First, on February 21st, the Copyright Office issued its much-anticipated decision regarding the registration of a graphic novel by artist Kristina Kashtanova that included images generated using the AI tool Midjourney. Then, on March 15th, the Copyright Office issued a policy statement providing its first guidance on the subject of copyright registration for works generated by AI.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the White House, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are warning companies that uncritical reliance on AI can have legal consequences, including potentially building in bias that can lead to claims of employment discrimination.

This Update is the first in a three-part series on legal issues surrounding generative technologies. This first installment will discuss recent developments regarding the copyrightability of AI-generated works.

Published over the holidays, President Biden signed the $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which includes a wide range of artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives and investments. It also directs several federal agencies to help ensure the responsible use of AI technologies, including the prevention of algorithmic bias. This Update includes a summary of the AI appropriations and initiatives.

Recent news has shined a spotlight on the legal consequences of mass layoff situations. Employers should take steps now to prepare for possible reductions in their workforce.

This update summarizes a recent publication subject to public comment adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): “A Proposal for Identifying and Managing Bias in Artificial Intelligence.” 

On May 26, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks signed a memorandum calling for the incorporation of responsible AI principles into the U.S. Department of Defense’s AI requirements and acquisition processes. The memo establishes foundational tenets for DoD’s adoption of responsible and ethical AI, and directs the DoD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) to make recommendations on incorporating responsible AI principles into DoD’s AI procurements. The memo is expected to have broad impacts on companies seeking to sell AI products to the government, for which there is a growing federal market.

In what could be a harbinger of the future regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States, the European Commission published its recent proposal for regulation of AI systems.

The Federal Trade Commission announced on January 11, 2021, that it had reached a settlement with Everalbum, Inc., the developer of a now-defunct photo storage app called “Ever.” The settlement is the FTC’s first enforcement action focused on facial recognition technology, and likely signals a new era of increased regulatory scrutiny for companies involved in facial recognition.

On January 12, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-Based Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) Action Plan (Action Plan). The Action Plan expresses that the “FDA’s vision is that, with appropriately tailored total product lifecycle-based regulatory oversight, AI/ML-based Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) will deliver safe and effective software functionality that improves the quality of care that patients receive.”

Companies that do business in Portland, Oregon may need to add one more item to their holiday to-do list: disable face recognition technologies in Portland.

In the 2020 Augmented and Virtual Reality Survey conducted by Perkins Coie LLP, Boost VC, and the XR Association, nearly three-quarters of industry leaders polled indicated that they expect immersive technologies to be mainstream within the next five years. 

In this episode, Perkins Coie partner and AI group Vice-chair Sam Jo will be joined by his associate, Sarah Konz, as they explore the constituent components of AI/ML development/training/licensing. They also discuss how to apply traditional copyright/software and know-how licensing principles to AI/ML technology.

In this episode, Dean Harvey to discusses how AI is being used in asset management and by regulated financial services intermediaries.

In this episode, Perkins Coie Partner Eric Greenberg sits down with Lori Schwartz, founder of StoryTech, to discuss the way AI is changing the production of content, why those changes are even more relevant in a Covid-19 world, and how AI is changing immersive and interactive storytelling by blurring the lines between games and stories.

In this AI Speaks podcast episode, Partners Jim Davis and Brad Dlatt sit down with special guest expert Ruth Kochenderfer of Marsh USA to talk about the impact that AI and the internet of things is having on the insurance industry, the drafting of insurance policies, and privacy protections.

In this episode, Jason Schneiderman sits down with Ryan Horrigan to discuss how the company uses of AI with voice, texting, and camera input to build more personalized and immersive gameplay.

In this AI Speaks podcast episode, Perkins Coie Senior Counsel James Ray sits down with Belinda Luu, Leader of Enterprise Data Management and Governance - Senior Counsel at Kaiser Permanente, to discuss the use AI in healthcare, including where AI has been beneficial and the challenges and ethical concerns with its use.

In this white paper, the authors discuss the legal concerns arising from the potential bias manifestations in ML algorithms used in the healthcare context under U.S. law. They briefly describe the legal landscape governing algorithmic bias in the United States and offer some emerging tools that build on existing recommended best practices, such as adversarial debiasing and the use of synthetic data for detecting, avoiding, and mitigating algorithmic bias

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the promise to revolutionize healthcare with machine learning (ML) techniques to predict patient outcomes and personalize patient care, but use of AI carries legal risks, including algorithmic bias, that can affect outcomes and care.

The SEC and FINRA announced several regulatory developments this summer relating to cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital assets.

On June 10, 2020, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a summary report regarding the existing and emerging uses of artificial intelligence (AI) by securities industry market participants.

Jordan Becker, Colin Fowler, and Michael Glenn discuss whether patent rights should be obtainable for inventions “invented” by artificial intelligence.

In Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, a manned exploratory mission to Jupiter is sabotaged by an artificial intelligence (AI) named HAL, which became famous for its line, “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

With the current coronavirus outbreak causing unprecedented social and economic upheaval and suffering, we take a look at the leading disruptive IT-related technologies to see what impact— positive, negative, or none at all—these technologies are having in our efforts to combat the effects of the coronavirus and what role these technologies could play in identifying and mitigating future pandemics.

In response to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, governments are scrambling to regulate this new technology. New York and New Jersey have recently proposed bills to study and regulate artificial intelligence. The authors of this article discuss the proposed laws.

Companies that deal with biometrics are likely aware of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which regulates the collection, storage, and use of biometric data, including, for example, fingerprints, voiceprints, and scans of “face geometry.” 

This update was republished in The Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law (September / October Edition).

This part one of a two-part report with the focus primarily on consumer protection implications. The report assesses the implications of data analytics, and new types of artificial intelligence, including machine learning and neural networks, on the law that drives our practices as consumer protection and competition lawyers. 

In recent years, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in every sphere of the economy has increased dramatically.

In anticipation of the profound effect of artificial intelligence (AI) on the world economy, both China and the U.S. have stepped up efforts to promote and regulate the technology.

Businesses that use chatbots to interact with customers online may be affected by California’s new Autobot Law (SB 1001) that goes into effect July 1, 2019.

Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions are transforming the way people work in many industries, and the legal industry is no exception. Although adoption of AI has been slow in the legal industry, law firms are now investing heavily in AI. In fact, spending on AI by law firms has doubled in the past two years, from 1-2 percent of the firms’ total technology budgets to 4-5 percent of the budgets.

Retailers worldwide are predicted to spend an unprecedented $2 billion on artificial intelligence/machine learning capabilities in 2018.

How will the advent of AI impact the creative process and the content business as we know it? What is the future of IP ownership?

Perkins Coie sponsored the 24th Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute (APLI). Co-organized with Stanford Law School, the APLI presents a roster of judges, academics, litigators, patent prosecutors, and senior intellectual property (IP) counsel from major corporations offering a results-oriented, in-depth look at the latest developments in patent law and practice.

SAG-AFTRA recently warned that "artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions."

Perkins Coie sponsored the annual McCarthy Institute IPCon.

The recently enacted My Health, My Data Act (MHMD) will regulate the collection, use, sharing, analysis, and sale of health-related data of individuals in Washington state and beyond.