Today, the new Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (TRAIL), a research unit under the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law (NUS Law) was launched by Mr Edwin Tong, Senior Minister of State for Law and Health.
The main focus of TRAIL is to be an “international think-tank that enables inter-disciplinary communities to research into legal, ethical, policy, philosophical, and regulatory questions associated with the use and development of information technology (IT), artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and robotics in the practice of law”.
There are plans conduct research into the “interactions between technology and the law”.
According to a press release, the Centre’s current activities include conducting research into the regulation and deployment of AI, as well as privacy and analysing data protection issues from the perspectives of computer science and law.
Researchers at the Centre will also examine the legal and ethical issues surrounding biotechnology, including medical ethics.
It also aims to provide a forum for legal and non-legal scholars interested in various aspects of technology law.
Said Senior Minister of State Mr Tong: “The increasingly rapid pace of technological developments in fields like artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles means the law has to respond even more quickly.”
Added Associate Professor Daniel Seng, who will be the Director of TRAIL, “TRAIL seeks to contribute towards the conversation on how we harness and integrate technology, in a useful and equitable way, into our society and our practice of law.”
“In addition, TRAIL intends to harness technologies such as data analytics and natural language processing to help us understand legal issues better and improve our laws and social policies. Ultimately, we want to create a fairer and more responsive legal system for the new technology era.”
TRAIL will be also collaborating with international research centres, and has already signed co-operation agreements with the Centre for Media and Communications Law as well as Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia at the Melbourne Law School, and the Law and Technology Centre at the University of Hong Kong.
