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AI Gets Involved With the Law


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Police computing devices.

The point of using artificial intelligence applications in the legal realm is to help automate the implementation of legal issues in which the logic is not clear.

Credit: Getty

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the law aims to let automated systems handle arguments in which the logic is not clear. Fraunhofer Institute researchers are developing Elterngeld, an AI application designed to make automatic decisions on child benefit claims.

The developers are currently in talks with Germany's Federal Employment Agency about how to deploy the system, although it is not yet ready to replace humans because the text of each law needs to be broken down into a structured, machine-readable format.

In the future, new laws could be drafted with machines in mind so that each is built as a structured database containing all of the law's concepts, which would enable AI software to implement legislation on a wide scale.

Another Fraunhofer Institute AI tool, called TrademarkNow, measures the similarity of new trademarks to those already in existence, to help avoid potential legal issues. The system works by mining the databases of the European and U.S. trademark registers.

From New Scientist
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Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

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