The United Arab Emirates is set to become the first country in the world to use artificial intelligence to help in writing new laws.
Announced recently by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and ruler of Dubai, the country will be the first to use AI to assist in writing new legislation and review and amend existing laws.
The country’s most recent Cabinet meeting made some key decisions in driving this decision forward, with the approval of the Regulatory Intelligence Office, which is set to oversee what the government are calling an “AI-driven legislative system.”
This system hopes to be capable of analysing court rulings, executive procedures and the real-life impact of laws, all while proposing reforms.
Overall, the system’s main goal is to create laws that reflect the needs of the country’s economy and diverse population.
What this means is that AI will assist lawmakers in drafting laws in multiple languages and in plain terms that are easily understood by everyone.
Improved efficiency is the name of the game, with the technology’s new role seeing a potential 70% decrease in legislative processing times. It will also be able to make recommendations based on global best practices.
Those leading the UAE believe this is an essential step if they are to keep up with technological and economic advancements.
UAE solicitor and law drafter, Hesham Elrafi, believes that the introduction of AI to lawmaking opens up a completely new avenue of efficiency. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said:
“It’s introducing a whole new way of making them. Instead of the traditional parliamentary model – where laws get stuck in endless political debates and take years to pass – this approach is faster, clearer, and based on solving real problems.”
There remain some concerns on giving this kind of responsibility to AI, with some experts worried that generative AI models are still prone to hallucinating information and unpredictable reasoning that could cause serious problems if not reviewed diligently.
