Artificially Intelligent Regulation

This essay maps the potential, and risks, of artificially intelligent regulation: regulatory arrangements that use a complex computational algorithm or another artificial agent either to define a legal norm or to guide its implementation. The ubiquity of AI systems in modern organizations all but guarantees that regulators or the parties they regulate will make use of learning algorithms or novel techniques to analyze data in the process of defining, implementing, or complying with regulatory requirements. We offer an account of the possible benefits and harms of artificially intelligent regulation. Its mix of costs and rewards, we show, depend primarily on whether AI is deployed in ways aimed merely at shoring up existing hierarchies, or whether AI systems are embedded in and around legal frameworks carefully structured and evaluated to better our lives, environment, and future.