Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

Upcoming American Bar Association National Institute on the Big AI Issues

September 4, 2020 | Stephen S. Wu

I am pleased to announce another American Bar Association Artificial Intelligence and Robotics National Institute this fall. The Institute is a continuing legal education program, although given the interdisciplinary nature of the program, we hope that many non-lawyers will join us. Because of COVID, the Institute will be online over a series of five Wednesdays with three hour-long panels each starting on September 30, 2020. I serve as Founder and Chair of the Institute. The goal of this year’s Institute is to tackle the big artificial intelligence and robotics issues – both today’s and tomorrow’s.

The online conference format is both an accommodation in light of the inability for us to gather in person because of the COVID-19 virus. We had such deep and meaningful personal interactions at our first national institute, it is sad to not have an in-person event. Nonetheless, we are making lemonade from lemons by offering our program online. We hope the Institute will play to the strengths of an online platform.

First, anyone around the world can attend from a home or office without the need of travel. We hope to spread the word and build a broader community of people concerned with AI and robotics legal issues and public policy. Second, the format offers us the ability to join the Institute with its sister program – the American Bar Association Internet of Things National Institute. On September 30, we are bringing the speakers and audiences from both Institutes together for one large online gathering to talk about the most urgent crossover issues of the day involving AI and IoT. We would not be able to have a joint meeting of both Institutes if we were meeting live.

Press Interview with SVLG Shareholder Stephen Wu About HIPAA Fine on Electronic Health Record Vendor

June 10, 2019 | Silicon Valley Law Group

On May 23, 2019, shareholder Stephen Wu spoke with Marianne Kolbasuk McGee of Information Security Media Group about a HIPAA an enforcement case.

The case was brought by the Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health and Human Services. It emphasized the importance of conducting a security program risk assessment in order to prevent security breaches.

To read the article with Stephen’s comments click here.

Podcast on Brexit, GDPR, and the American AI Initiative

February 11, 2019 | Silicon Valley Law Group

Today, shareholder Stephen Wu hosted DMH Stallard partner Anthony Lee and talked about fast-breaking news about personal data exports from the United Kingdom to the United States in light of Brexit and the status of the General Data Protection Regulation in the United Kingdom. Steve Wu spoke about the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative executive order that President Donald Trump was expected to sign today.

To listen to the podcast or download a copy, please click here.

Stephen Wu’s practice includes compliance, transactions, liability, investigation, and governance in advanced information technologies such as artificial intelligence He collaborates with lawyers in other member firms of the International Network of Boutique and Independent Law Firms’ in a global GDPR working group. For assistance on GDPR, GDPR compliance program, or artificial intelligence matters, please contact Stephen Wu by completing the web form here.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Investigations Webinar

January 31, 2019 | Silicon Valley Law Group

SVLG Shareholder Stephen Wu will host a webinar on February 27, 2019. at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern. The presenter for this webinar is Attorney Paul Starrett. The program is entitled “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Investigations.”

SVLG regularly hosts Meetups of the American Bar Association Section of Science & Technology Law’s Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee. The Committee offers Meetup programs as a member benefit.

During the program, Paul Starrett, EnCE, CFE, an attorney and private investigator specializing in high-profile investigations, will discuss applying machine learning to investigations. More specifically, he will focus on the synergy among machine-learning tools found in information retrieval, natural-language processing and graph databases. He will also talk about how that synergy provides an efficient means to reveal vital insights. Without such insights, those insights might be lost.

Meetup on Lessons Learned from the Equifax Data Breach

October 13, 2017 | Silicon Valley Law Group

SVLG Shareholder Stephen Wu will host a conference call program on the recent Equifax data breach on October 25, 2017 at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern. While the Equifax is not the largest ever in terms of the total number of records affected, by some estimates, it affected about half of the population in the United States. With a breach that large, legislators and regulators are considering what new policies may help to prevent future large-scale breaches.

For businesses that create, receive, maintain, and transmit personal data, the Equifax breach raises the question of what changes are necessary to keep up with evolving data security threats. According to news reports, the breach occurred because of a failure in patch management — a failure to implement a publicly available patch to a known security vulnerability for a period of months. Are there emerging threats that warrant changes in patch management practices? Or did the Equifax breach occur because of the company’s failure to take care of the basic patch management steps. We will explore these questions in this program.

The program will generally explore the technical and legal ramifications of the breach. What are the prospects for liability? What compliance challenges does the breach highlight? Are there changes in documented practice and procedure that the breach would suggest?

Stephen Wu to Speak at the Global Artificial Intelligence Conference

January 6, 2017 | Silicon Valley Law Group

On January 19, 2017, SVLG attorney Stephen Wu will present a program at the Global Artificial Intelligence Conference entitled “Product Liability Issues in AI Systems.” The talk will focus on product liability risks to companies providing AI-based products and services. It will cover the sources of legal risk to manufacturers, and how manufacturers can manage those risks. Many in the industry consider liability to be a chief obstacle to the widespread deployment of AI systems. Nonetheless, it is possible to implement design practices and procedures to minimize and manage legal risk.

In preparation for the conference, Steve Wu addressed some questions posed by the conference organizers. Some of the conference’s questions and Steve Wu’s answers are below.

Q. Where are we now today in terms of the state of artificial intelligence, and where do you think we’ll go over the next five years?

NHTSA Issues Long-Awaited Automated Vehicle Guidance

September 20, 2016 | Stephen S. Wu

This morning, on September 20, 2016, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued long-awaited guidance on automated vehicles (AV). DOT took a flexible approach of “guidance” and does not intend the document to be the last word on autonomous driving. Rather, it seeks to create a framework and process that will inform future DOT action. It’s interesting that DOT raises the possibility of pre-market approval, and an appendix uses FAA authority as an analog. Finally, DOT expressly raises the ethical issues involved in AV programming, although it does not seek to take a definitive position on them.

The DOT guidance document is linked here:

https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/AV%20policy%20guidance%20PDF.pdf