Lawyers prepare for more lawsuits over ethical use of AI

In short: Disagreements about what counts as “ethical AI” are increasingly turning into lawsuits, and lawyers are playing a central role.

What's going on

Courts are seeing more cases tied to how AI systems are built and used. A major area is copyright, where authors and other creators say their work was used to train language models without clear permission. Language models are AI systems that learn patterns from large amounts of text, like a student learning by reading many books.

Another set of disputes focuses on harm caused by algorithms, which are step by step instructions a computer follows, like a recipe. The article points to cases that weigh free speech against an AI user’s responsibility to prevent harm, especially in places where rules are limited or unclear.

Some experts say voluntary promises have not changed much, and that lawsuits and enforcement are now pushing companies to take AI ethics more seriously. Marie Potel-Saville, co-founder of AI watchdog Fair Patterns, says company boards are starting to treat ethics as a legal risk, not just a public image issue.

Governments are also stepping in unevenly. The European Union passed the AI Act in 2024, which bans some uses of biometric identification and requires clear disclosure when AI is being used in certain services. In the US, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June creating a voluntary framework and asking companies to submit new AI models for security reviews up to 30 days before release.

What to watch

More lawsuits are likely as AI spreads into everyday products and services. Companies may add stronger internal checks, such as rules requiring chatbots to clearly identify themselves, to reduce the risk of ending up in court.

Source: Financial Times