![handle is hein.journals/digiteeslr16 and id is 1 raw text is:
EDITORIAL
The term 'artificial intelligence' (AI) is now much in
vogue, although 'algorithmic intelligence' is a phrase
that is to be preferred.' We have reported on a
number of books that cover this area over the years,
both legal and non-legal, including in this volume -
illustrating that the legal sphere narrows by the day -
we do not anticipate that any of the non-law books
reported in the journal will ever find their way into a
law library.
Algorithmic intelligence is far from being a reality by
one definition, yet is constantly being used in every-
day life; in many cases, without, it might be argued,
any justification. For instance, in the United Kingdom,2
Argent (Property Development) Services LLP has
installed facial recognition technology in the area it
owns around the King's Cross area of London. This has
caused the Office of the Information Commissioner to
investigate its use.3 This is a serious issue of public
concern,4 and raises issues regarding the security of
such personal information. It also illustrates that all of
the words written by authors of all the books and
articles and reported on in this journal have been
wise, but that is all.
1 David Harel, Computers Ltd. What They Really Can't Do
(2000, Oxford University Press), 194. In March 2012
Professor Harel wrote a new preface to the reprint, indicating
that the underlying points made in his text remained:
htp://www.wisdom.weizmann .ac.il/-harel/td .html#turinQPref
ace; Professor Zdenka Kuncic refers to 'synthetic
intelligence', 'In search of smarter machines', Financial
Times Magazine, August 3/4 2019, 23.
2 This occurrence is not restricted to the UK, for which see
Matt Potter, 'San Diego's street lights that spy', San Diego
Reader, 20 February 2019,
htps://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/feb/20/san-
diecios-street- ichts-spy/#.
3 Dan Sabbagh, 'Regulator looking at use of facial
recognition at King's Cross site', The Guardian, 12 August
2019, hts://www.thequardian.com/uk-
news/201 9/auq!1 2/regulator-lookinq-at-use-of-facial-
recocnition-at-kinas-cross-site and httis:/iico org uklabout-
the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-
bloqs/201 9/08/statement-live-facial-recoqnition-technoloqy-
In-Knr sr ; see also Big Brother Watch, 'Facial
Recognition 'Epidemic' in the UK', 16 August 2019 at
https:/Hbig brotherwatch.orq .uk/all-media/facial-recoqgnition-
epidemic-in-the-uk!.
4 Especially if lip-sync technology is used to determine what
people are saying: Martin Bentham, 'Britain could have Big
Brother surveillance society worse than George Orwell's
1984, government watchdog warns', Evening Standard, 27
August 2019 https:/iwww.standard.co.uk/news/uk/britain-
risks-havinosurveillance-society-worse-than-geori-orwells-
1984-government-watchdoc-warns-a4221851 .html.
As pointed out by Professor Zdenka Kuncic,
algorithmic intelligence 'remains limited to specific
tasks and relies on a lot of carefully curated data, as
well as computer programming, to optimize how its
algorithms execute the task at hand', and 'struggles
with meaning and context' in which decisions 'are
made in a deterministic way based on hard-wired
sequential instructions' where Al 'merely grinds
through the datasets it is presented with.' Professor
Kuncic concludes that 'artificial consciousness is
unlikely to arise from algorithmic artificial neural
networks' because neuroscience has revealed that
recognizing patterns and parsing sentences occur
unconsciously in the brain.'
Aspects of algorithmic intelligence are already being
used in daily life, regardless of the laws presently in
place, or any future laws.
We are not living in a world that is free of algorithmic
intelligence. Forget those that predict that algorithmic
intelligence will be used in the future. Different
versions of what we take to be algorithmic
intelligence are with us now (strong Al, weak Al,
machine learning [that is, software code that 'learns'],
and deep learning), and we are made to interact with
such software whether we like it or not. An overall
'artificial intelligence' of the future, much beloved of
commentators, is, we are constantly informed,
creeping up on use now. Forget the future. We are
living in the future.
For this reason, as excellent as all the articles and
books written by lawyers, technicians and
philosophers might be, unless politicians act to
regulate the use of software, we are leading into a
future that promises to be even more repellent that
hitherto. We are no longer able to lead an anonymous
life, and worse is to come.
The failure of the legal profession to understand the
ramifications this has on evidence and proof is
profound.
© Stephen Mason and Dr Allison Stanfield, 2019
5 'In search of smarter machines', 22 -23.
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