Artificial Intelligence: The Practical Legal Issues 4th ed

Artificial Intelligence remains a complex and rapidly evolving technology. Since the third edition of this book, Generative AI has embedded itself in the daily workflows of businesses, public bodies and – increasingly – the legal profession itself. What was a seismic shock only a few years ago is now an established fact of commercial and social life, and the pace shows no sign of slowing. In parallel, the legislative and policy landscape has hardened from proposal into law: the EU’s groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence Act is no longer an anticipated framework but an operative one. In a fast‑moving specialist area, it is essential to keep pace. If you are lost and need clear direction, Artificial Intelligence – The Practical Legal Issues will guide you through the policy updates and the implications of existing and emerging AI technologies, and provide a practical and easily digestible path to the real issues you need to consider as a legal practitioner.

This book contains a grounding of what differentiates artificially intelligent systems from traditional technology and explains the differences between AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning, and what makes Generative and Agentic AI – and, by association, the foundation and frontier models now driving the field – so different. Understanding what AI systems can and cannot do is also essential to developing a clear legal awareness of the technology. From these introductory foundations, you’ll learn how the deployment of AI creates issues and risks that need to be considered carefully and that permeate across causation, intellectual property ownership, confidentiality and data protection, employment, corporate and even criminal law.

This Fourth Edition brings the reader fully up to date with a field transformed since the last edition of this book. The EU Artificial Intelligence Act is examined in depth in its final, enacted form – including the treatment of general‑purpose and foundation models and the practical compliance questions now facing developers and deployers alike – together with the subsequent recalibration of the EU digital rulebook by the Digital Omnibus and its associated timeline adjustments. There are completely new chapters on Agentic AI, AI Safety and AI Alignment, Governance and Standards. The chapters on Data and market regulation have been substantially revised to reflect the UK data regime as reshaped by the Data Use and Access Act and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act, while the discussion of AI ethics, liability snd causation have been expanded to keep step with both the technology and emerging case law. The result is intended to remain what earlier editions aimed to be: a clear, candid and genuinely practical companion for the non‑specialist practitioner navigating one of the most consequential legal subjects of our time.