By The AI & Financial Justice Venture of the ABA Part of Civil Rights and Social Justice
On April 26, the ABA, in partnership with the Nationwide Affiliation of Client Advocates, will host “AI and Consumers: The Invisible Impact on Economic Justice”—the ABA’s second webinar in an ongoing series on synthetic intelligence and financial justice points.
This upcoming webinar, which will probably be held from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, will embody a presentation of the harms created by or exacerbated by automated resolution programs, or “ADS,” as they relate to client regulation points, reminiscent of lending and debt assortment, and an summary of responses from a latest ABA survey on client regulation and ADS. Panelists on April 26 will embody attorneys from the personal and public sectors, in addition to from civil society teams.
You possibly can watch the first webinar within the sequence and discover supplemental assets at “AI Essentials for Lawyers: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Clients in the Digital Age.”
How did the ABA get right here?
On the finish of 2022, the ABA Part of Civil Rights and Social Justice started reaching out to varied committees, sections and divisions of the ABA to interact them about launching an AI & Economic Justice Project inside the ABA.
This AI+EJ Venture would manage an ABA-wide convening to higher perceive the impacts of AI and automatic decision-making programs on low-income communities and different marginalized teams, in addition to related authorized frameworks, to assist inform the event of a questionnaire.
In April 2023, greater than 100 ABA members and representatives registered to attend a convening to assessment and edit an early draft of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was launched in summer time 2023, with preliminary results published in December.
Along with normal, catchall questions, the questionnaire included specialised questions on actions within the following domains: automated programs, public advantages, prison justice, client points, information privateness, immigration, public training, public housing/advantages and AI use and procurement.
This webinar sequence is structured round a few of the classes gained from that questionnaire, together with shows on client regulation, training, prison justice, housing and public advantages and worldwide/world points.
This sequence is designed to assist elevate consciousness inside the authorized occupation of a number of AI-related points impacting marginalized teams and to brainstorm attainable methods to deal with them—points reminiscent of deliberate and implicit bias, predatory and unintended misuse, lack of transparency, challenges with digital literacy and restrictions on entry to justice.
Wanting forward, the AI+EJ Venture goals to deal with points reminiscent of what current authorized frameworks (e.g., statutes, regulatory motion, caselaw) may be most useful right here, the place do we’d like new authorized instruments, and what content material and different nonlegal actions (e.g., whitepapers, webinars, proposed ABA coverage) might help to realize the largest affect right here.
The Civil Rights and Social Justice Part printed preliminary outcomes from the inaugural questionnaire on AI and financial justice in December. In brief, whereas some survey respondents indicated that they have been accustomed to instruments reminiscent of automated surveillance, fraud detection, generative AI and threat scoring, practically half indicated that they didn’t know when these programs have been getting used, and the overwhelming majority felt uncomfortable explaining how these programs labored.
Extra outcomes from the questionnaire will probably be shared on this webinar sequence and in forthcoming AI+EJ Venture publications. The AI+EJ Venture anticipates that future questionnaires will probably be developed and distributed in partnership with the Nationwide Affiliation of Client Advocates—with the outcomes shared in further public studies and shows for the good thing about ABA members and the authorized occupation extra broadly.
AI webinar sequence particulars
Right here is the total sequence schedule:
• Now obtainable on demand: “AI Essentials for Lawyers: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Clients in the Digital Age”
• April 26: “AI and Consumers: The Invisible Impact on Economic Justice”
• Could 22: “AI in Education: Addressing Biases and Discrimination, Privacy & Surveillance”
• June 18: “AI in Criminal Justice: Automated Decision-Making Tools and Technology, From Policing to Corrections”
• June 27: “AI in Housing and Benefits: Automating Discrimination, Enhancing Surveillance, and Scaling Bias”
• July 16: “Going Global: Seeking Redress Against Digital Harms Beyond the US”
Get entangled
The AI+EJ Venture welcomes your curiosity and help. Electronic mail [email protected] for extra details about how one can assist.
Up to date on April 25 so as to add the time of the April 26 webinar.
