Medico-Legal challenges through newer competency models
Prof.Dr. Sir Lakshman Madurasinghe , Chairman Medicina Alternative and Head of Therapeutic Jurisprudence; Susinidu Croos, Dilrukshi Somasundaram Faculty of Law Medicina Alternativa Branch Campus Azteca University
Keywords: AI, Law, Competencies, Medicine, Health
Introduction
Today, AI is an economic engine that is seeing progress in both new skill development and in commercial adaptation in a myriad of fields. Machine learning and deep learning techniques have allowed automated and augmented prediction to surpass the standards of traditional human skills. This has permeated to diverse fields including law but has been particularly evident in the medical field where diagnosis is the standard.1
Even though numerous benefits of analyzing large chunks of data and speedy operations have been witnessed, AI has also been the subject of a plethora of dire warnings of technology gone awry. Once human-like intelligence is achieved, what are the ceilings of how far AI can progress? Are there limits, or will humans be eclipsed by machine technology? Is there an ethical or political basis for limiting the scope of AI? Recent interviews with such well-known Technologists and scientists, like Elon Musk and the late Stephen Hawking, have illuminated these warnings of existential risks associated with the development of AI. 2
Origins
The proliferation of AI and its ramifications in diverse sectors since the Dartmouth Conference in 1956 has been phenomenal. At this conference, the expression Artificial Intelligence was first used by John McCarthy. Thus, AI turned fifty in 20063.
After Dartmouth, AI research centres were formed at Carnegie-Mellon University, at MIT and at Stanford University. In England, Alan Turing’s legacy was taken up at Edinburgh, before AI research spread around the world.4
1 Sennaar, K. “Machine Learning for Medical Diagnosis – 4 Current Applications” Embro (March 5,
2019). https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/machine-learning-medical-diagnostics-4-current-applications/
2 Chung, E. “AI must turn focus to safety, Stephen Hawking and other researchers say”. Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (January 13, 2015).
3 Roberto cordeschi, ‘Ai Turns Fifty: Revisiting Its Origins’ [2007] 21(4-5) applied artificial intelligence 259–279
4 Cordeschi, R. (2007). AI turns fifty: revisiting its origins. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 21(4-5), 259-279.
Even earlier references to machines acquiring human-scale intelligence appeared in science
fiction work by authors like Isaac Asimov in his novel, “I Robot”, published in 1950. 5
What is Artificial Intelligence – AI
Artificial Intelligence may be defined as “creating a computer programme that acts in a manner that an ordinary person would deem intelligent”6
However, as we examine the available literature, we find that there is no generally accepted definition for AI.
John McCarthy In 2007 published the paper “What is Artificial Intelligence?”. In this paper, he defines AI as follows: “Artificial intelligence” means the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. “Intelligence” means the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world7.
What is Artificial General Intelligence – AGI
An important distinction to be addressed is the difference between AI and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)8. While AI can be an important tool in augmenting human reasoning and prediction, it does not possess self-awareness or consciousness. The ideal of strong AI or AGI introduces the property of self-awareness.9
Under the supposition that human consciousness is an emergent consequence of complex neural architectures in the brain, it follows that there are no required elements outside of the realm of physics and elegant engineering for the advent of self-awareness. Therefore, the neural configuration of the brain can be completely simulated in a computer of sufficient complexity. It is reasonable under the artificial brain argument that if the brain can be simulated by machines and since brains are intelligent, simulated brains must also be intelligent.10
5 Asimov, I. “I, Robot” Gnome Press, New York City (1950)
6 Rajpurohit, D. S., & Seal, R. (2019). Legal definition of artificial intelligence. Supremo Amicus, 10, 87.
7 John McCarthy, ‘What is Artificial Intelligence?’ (Computer Science Department, Stanford University, 12 November 2007) http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/what-is-ai/what-is-ai.html accessed 11 June 2024.
8 Roman yampolskiy, ‘On Defining Differences between Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence’ (Research Gate, January 2020)
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342503213_On_Defining_Differences_between_Intelligence_and_Art ificial_Intelligence> accessed 11 June 2024
9 Kurzweil, R. “The Singularity is Near”, New York: Viking Press (2005).
10 Shulman, C. and Bostrom, N. “How Hard is Artificial Intelligence? Evolutionary Arguments and Selection Effects”
Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol 19, No. 7–8, 103–130 (2012).
Benefits to the Legal Profession
documents to be processed at a never been seen before pace, enable lawyers to review contracts, find relevant discovery documents, and conduct legal research in record time11
While we are far from the days where A.I. will be up to matching the human element of the lawyering experience, there are several tasks that it can perform to help increase a practicing lawyer’s efficiency, including improving and streamlining workflow, refining sales and marketing for firms, and saving time for lawyers to engage in “‘more intellectual endeavors, such as engaging with clients or formulating and executing litigation strategies.”12
Examples of various Legal AI apps in use today
CaptureNow, Casetext, Lex Machina, ChatGPT, Relativity, Everlaw, Lawgeex, Latch, Smith.ai, HarveyAI, Law.co, Even Up
Drawbacks to the Legal Profession
However, there are still limitations to using A.I. in the legal field, such as the famous case of Mata
v. Avianca, in which the attorney “submitted non-existent judicial opinions with fake quotes and
citations created by the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT”13
Furthermore, there are also concerns regarding privacy and confidentiality. Because of the way that A.I. is trained, data supplied by its users has the potential to make it into the public domain to be used by others14
Artificial intelligence raises a number of questions that have yet to be answered, especially in the context of the future of the legal profession within a robust and conservative legal system15:
11 Matthew Stepka, Law Bots: How A.I. Is Reshaping the Legal Profession, Bus. L. Today (Feb. 21, 2022), https://businesslawtoday.org/2022/02/how-ai-is-reshaping-legal-profession/
12 Erica Sandberg, How Law Firms Are Using Artificial Intelligence in Their Practice, U.S. News (July 31, 2023), https://law.usnews.com/law-firms/advice/articles/how-law-firms-use-ai
13 Mata v. Avianca, Inc., No. 22-CV-1461 (PKC), 2023 WL 4114965, at 1 (S.D.N.Y. June 22, 2023)
14 Limitations and risks of using AI in legal practice, Legal Practitioners Liab.Comm., https://lplc.com.au/resources/lplc-article/limitations-risks-ai-in-legal-practice (last updated Aug. 17, 2023) 15Maireg Biresaw.S, ‘The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Research in the Legal Profession’ [2022 ] 5(0) International Journal of Law and Society 53-65
Ethical implications of AI in the legal industry can raise several questions. After all, should AI be trusted with tasks that require human judgement?16
Plus, who becomes accountable or responsible when AI systems make errors or cause harm? Deploying AI in sensitive legal matters demands ethical deliberation and care17.
AI in Health Care
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform health care and disrupt the field of medicine in significant ways. It has shown remarkable progress in tasks such as diagnostics, data analysis, and precision medicine and is already being applied in areas ranging from patient triage to cancer detection.
However, the recent availability of AI to the public, including language models like ChatGPT, has increased the awareness of AI and its potential capabilities in medicine. The continued growth of AI has spurred interest and debate concerning its broader use in patient care.
ChatGPT successfully passed the USMLE and can solve internal medicine case files, indicating its versatility and potential for future clinical applications. In fact, Google and DeepMind developed the Med-PaLM language model trained on several existing medical Q&A datasets to offer “safe and helpful answers” to questions posed by health care professionals and patients.
Language models, like ChatGPT and Med-PaLM, generate responses in a conversational manner to written statements, referred to as prompts, entered by users in a chat window. This is achieved without the need for coding, as the models utilize their training and data to generate contextually relevant responses.
By leveraging these powerful tools, doctors can improve the quality of care while saving time on tasks that can be automated with AI. With further development and refinement, AI technology could play an important role in enhancing the standard of care.
AI and the Rule of Law
The Doctrine of Rule of Law was introduced by A V Dicey, and envisages three things: no punishment is inflicted except for a breach of law, equality before law and protection of rights.
In achieving the above three requirements, accessibility, clarity and predictability play a major role in any legal system of a country. However, if AI is used to govern the basic tenets of a legal system, the above concepts will be disturbed.
Because, digitalizing a legal system will speed up the mechanism and as well allow access to justice as never before, due to the high capacity of work capability. But this “access requirement” which is also guaranteed by Art 6 of ECHR, might not be possible for every citizen since digital access might not be a familiar concept for everyone. Therefore, there is a possibility for the doctrine of rule of law to be threatened if AI is included.
How should we approach
IBA Findings
2024 legal trends for mid-sized law firms Reports, 31% lawyers from mid-sized law firms and 19% lawyers from smaller firms believe that their governments will not accept AI. However major Bar Associations (Michigan, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey) have issued AI principles with more guidance18.
EU Act salient points
In an attempt to address the challenges and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, the European Union has agreed on an ambitious AI law to regulate this expanding field. This initiative puts the EU at the forefront of the technological revolution19.
16 Osasona.F and others, ‘Reviewing the ethical implications of AI in decision making processes’ [2024] 6(2) International Journal of Management & Entrepreneurship Research 322-335
17 https://www.clio.com/blog/harvey-ai-legal/
18 https://www.clio.com/blog/ai-ethics-opinion/
19 European parliament, ‘EU AI Act: first regulation on artificial intelligence-The use of artificial intelligence in the
EU will be regulated by the AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive AI law Find out how it will protect you’
The AI Act imposes binding rules on transparency and ethics, requiring tech companies to notify individuals when they interact with AI systems, such as chatbots or biometric categorization and emotion recognition systems. In addition, the Act prohibits the use of AI, such as biometric systems with sensitive characteristics and emotion recognition, in the workplace or schools.20
It is the first comprehensive AI Regulation in the world and it follows a risk based approach.
Background: The Artificial Intelligence Act responds directly to citizens’ proposals from the Conference on the Future of Europe (COFE), most concretely to proposal 12(10) on enhancing EU’s competitiveness in strategic sectors, proposal 33(5) on a safe and trustworthy society, including countering disinformation and ensuring humans are ultimately in control, proposal 35 on promoting digital innovation, (3) while ensuring human oversight and (8) trustworthy and responsible use of AI, setting safeguards and ensuring transparency.
The Act also provides a Closed list of prohibited AI practices
The situation in Sri Lanka — Target 2030
Sri Lanka is active as seen by the establishment of the Sri Lanka Association of Artificial Intelligence (LAAI)in 2000. When comes to AI, Sri Lanka is seeking a balanced approach to harness the potential benefits of AI to speed up national progress by reinforcing the well-being of its population and strengthening the Global economic stance and comparative advantage21.
Newer Competency Models for Lawyers
Delta Model: An Agile competency model for the modern legal professionals which was developed since 2018. The practice of a legal professional which is achieved through knowing the subject by researching and clear communication (practice)22. That will help the legal professional to understand and relate the clients, colleagues (people) and ourselves by delivering legal services (practice) effectively and efficiently23.
(European Parliament , 8th June 2023)
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial- intelligence> accessed 10th June 2024
20 id
22 https://www.inhousecommunity.com/article/shape-lawyers-future-t-o-delta- https://www.youtube.com/@alysoncarrel
23 https://www.lawdeltamodel.com/
T Model: expects a lawyer to cross boundaries in team work, communication, networking, critical thinking, and project management. This will encapsulate many disciplines. However, under this model, mastering in one discipline, too is possible24.
O Model: driven by a framework of the five behaviors and mind sets which guide our actions. The five behaviors are: optimism, ownership, open mindedness, opportunistic and original25.
I Model: this includes soft skills, and business knowledge. The aspect of business knowledge is two folded: legal knowledge and traditional skills26
The threat of Singularity Issue
It is predicted that this hypothetical model may come into existence by 2027-2030 which will open up for super intelligence being similar to a human. This superintelligence might be a threat to humanity!
24 https://www.ie.edu/law-school/news-events/news/t-shaped-lawyers-taking-legal-industry/