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Dr Barry Scannell of William Fry notes the world's first legislation regulating so-called "AI companions". In the 2013 film Her, a lonely man falls in love with an AI. What once seemed like speculative fiction has edged uncomfortably close to reality.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has rebuked a complainant who relied on "phantom citations" in submissions which may have been generated using AI. In a ruling handed down on 1 October, adjudication officer Patricia Owens said she was "not particularly concerned about whether the complainant

Northern Ireland's public consultation on proposals to criminalise the creation and sharing of sexually explicit "deepfake" images of adults closes soon. The Department of Justice wants to hear from the public as it continues efforts to tackle emerging issues relating to the use of deepfake technolo

A UK tax tribunal judge has confirmed that he used artificial intelligence to help draft a ruling on a disclosure application, in what appears to be the first published UK judicial decision of its kind. The case, VP Evans (as executrix of HB Evans, deceased) & Ors v The Commissioners for HMRC [2

Fifteen government bodies have been given responsibility for enforcing the new EU AI Act in a major milestone for Ireland's implementation of the landmark law. Ireland has adopted a distributed model of competent authorities for the EU AI Act, with a designated central authority to provide coordinat

Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal have filed a lawsuit in California against MiniMax, a $4 billion Chinese AI company, accusing it of “willful and brazen” copyright infringement. The studios allege MiniMax’s Hailuo AI service generates unauthorised images and videos o

An English judge has criticised a taxpayer for using an artificial intelligence chatbot to argue his case in court after it "hallucinated" non-existent legal precedents. Marc Gunnarsson used AI to help prepare his legal submissions when appealing a decision by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The tax

Germany's data protection watchdog is seeking the input of Irish stakeholders as part of a public consultation into AI and memorisation. The consultation is intended to contribute to the development of data protection-compliant approaches for dealing with personal data in the context of large langua

The Law Society of Ireland has extended the registration deadline for its free online course on artificial intelligence after a record number of sign-ups. Over 6,450 people from 84 countries have registered for the five-week course, which is open to members of the public — making it the most p

William Fry partners Barry Scannell and Leo Moore welcome the publication of the European Commission's long-awaited mandatory AI training data template. From August 2025, the European Commission will require providers of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models to publish a summary of the content used to tr

A survey launched by the International Bar Association (IBA) is seeking views on how AI is transforming the legal sector. The survey, compiled by the IBA's Section on Public and Professional Interest (SPPI) AI working group, aims to help develop strategies that address the opportunities and challeng

Northern Ireland is set to criminalise the creation and sharing of sexually explicit "deepfake" images of adults under plans now out for consultation. There is currently no legislation in Northern Ireland which criminalises the creation and sharing of sexually explicit deepfake images where the imag

The European Commission has published its general-purpose AI code of practice, aimed at helping businesses to comply with their obligations under the EU AI Act. The voluntary tool, prepared by independent experts in a multi-stakeholder process, consists of three chapters on transparency, copyright,

Ulster University's Centre for Legal Technology (CLT) has announced a new research and innovation partnership with Lawri AI, a Northern Ireland-based legal technology startup. The collaboration, led by CLT's director John Keers BL, will explore how AI and automation can improve the efficiency, accur

No additional funding has so far been allocated to the nine public bodies set to receive additional powers to enforce the EU AI Act, a survey has found. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said it approached the nine organisations ahead of them receiving new enforcement powers in August 202