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LAW AND TECHNOLOGY
Gitte Dekens
Eva Lievens
,LAW AND TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
TikTok was like ‘slow poison’ they said in a news article
Children under 15 years should be banned from TikTok
Amazon is known for using tricks the way in setting up and account, colour of the buttons, difficult
where to find the right information
= ‘dark patterns’
You do things that you would not do if you fully understand what is happening
They use your cognitive weaknesses
Vb.: most people are used to click the button on the right or the green button
Disruption at Brussels Airport because one of the companies that they use for check in registration
has been the victim of a cyber attack
Malicious software is used to enter the system and then they lock the system
They only release your system if you pay a lot of money
It has a huge impact cancelled, delayed flights
Technology is not only a bad thing like the above examples
There is also good news: people who suffer from certain memory loss can use technology to keep
their brain functioning
PART I. TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMY, SOCIETY
CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR LAWYERS
CHAPTER 3: THE RISE OF PLATFORM IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
CHAPTER 4: A SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVE ON TECHNOLOGY AND NEW MEDIA
Technology is neither good nor bad, nor it is neutral – Melvin Kranzberg
Lots of technology is being created, the pace at which computer engineers develop technology is
extremely fast
And what they create is most of the time not bad, not good but also not neutral
Ralf De Wolf explains different ways that you can look at technology
Most people have a deterministic view of technology
they do think technology is neutral (it just shapes certain things in society)
They think that how people use technology doesn’t matter
1
,Another view: instrumentalism
It is still neutral for them, but that it is up to individuals to decide how to use this
‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people’
Comparison: facial recognition technology to a gun (created) but they only kill someone if an
individual decide to kill someone else
In itself it can be an okay technology, it depends on how people use it
Another view: substantivism
Technology is an autonomous force and that even if you do not look at how people use it, it
is already inherently something that is bad
‘Guns are just meant to kill people’
How an individual uses this doesn’t really matter, it is the technology that kills people
Last view: critical theory (encouraged by Ralf De Wolf)
Technology is not neutral, it has certain values because it is developed by humans
But we do have agency as individuals individual can still decide how technology is used
we will have a look at these 3 different components and what you
need to consider if you want to regulate
1. TECHNOLOGY
Technological considerations:
- How is it designed?
- Which models are used?
- How does the algorithm work?
- How well does the technology work?
- How secure is the technology?
- Who has designed the technology?
2. ECONOMY
Economic considerations:
- What is the business model?
- Who are the economic actors in the tech sector?
For example.: Alphabet (YouTube, Android, Google, Play)
They have a huge power so it is important that they respect certain values
The power of a company in economic terms has societal consequences and is a reason
for policy makers to take action
The way in which certain platforms work had consequences
For example: two sided platforms like Uber person who needs to go somewhere and a
person with a car
You need enough drivers for the users and you need enough users for the drivers
For example: multisided platforms like Uber eats you have people who wants to eat
something, you have the restaurants and you have the drivers
- How much economic power do tech companies hold?
2
, - Which role do network externalities and lock-in-play?
‘lock in’ It can be difficult for you to switch to another service because you have
invested so much in a certain type of service
These are effects that regulators might not want
3. SOCIETY
Societal considerations:
- Is the use of certain technology desirable/ acceptable/ unacceptable?
- Are there potential negative effects related to use of the technology?
- How are values shaped by technology?
For example: fake news
For example: only 2 rooms available at booking scarcity effect
- Do individuals need certain skills to use the technology?
Everything in relation to media literacy and digital literacy sometimes technology is
quite complex and you need some skills and knowledge to be able to deal with it
You actually need to be taught about how AI works for example
Concrete example: Chat GPT
The technological aspect:
It actually important to know how it works, how these large language models work
It is actually not smart, it is just a predictive model
They are trained by huge data sets texts are illegally taken from the internet
Data sets are not super qualitative, but it is extremely fast and gives you a lot of interesting
information (but not always correct!)
The societal aspect:
Importance? it has a huge societal impact
If many people use it/rely on the information and the information is wrong, it can have a huge impact
As a society we do not really know what kind of data has been used the AI Act wants to change
this (more transparency)
There have been quite number of students who have used ChatGPT for course work which led to the
use of hallucinated sources they can’t participate by the reset and take the course again
It can have big consequences for some individuals
The economical aspect: you often use the free version, but you pay with your input data
You are not really sure what they do with it
Most of these generative AI Bots are made in only 2 countries: the USA and China
In these chatbots are certain worldviews that are favoured
For example: Deep sea
The entire executive team of OpenAI was at a certain moment in time under 40 years old so this
means that the language model reflects the thinking and knowing of one generation
And the language issue: accuracy of the answers will depend on the extent of the dataset and it is
much bigger when it comes to English than when it comes in Dutch
Other example: Instagram
The Digital Services Act has obliged the companies who run these big platforms to be able to
personalize your feed
It is interesting to see how the feed works for influencer content economical question
And important link between the economic and technological consideration is that the platform wants
you to stay as long as possible on it because you will see more advertising
3
LAW AND TECHNOLOGY
Gitte Dekens
Eva Lievens
,LAW AND TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
TikTok was like ‘slow poison’ they said in a news article
Children under 15 years should be banned from TikTok
Amazon is known for using tricks the way in setting up and account, colour of the buttons, difficult
where to find the right information
= ‘dark patterns’
You do things that you would not do if you fully understand what is happening
They use your cognitive weaknesses
Vb.: most people are used to click the button on the right or the green button
Disruption at Brussels Airport because one of the companies that they use for check in registration
has been the victim of a cyber attack
Malicious software is used to enter the system and then they lock the system
They only release your system if you pay a lot of money
It has a huge impact cancelled, delayed flights
Technology is not only a bad thing like the above examples
There is also good news: people who suffer from certain memory loss can use technology to keep
their brain functioning
PART I. TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMY, SOCIETY
CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR LAWYERS
CHAPTER 3: THE RISE OF PLATFORM IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
CHAPTER 4: A SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVE ON TECHNOLOGY AND NEW MEDIA
Technology is neither good nor bad, nor it is neutral – Melvin Kranzberg
Lots of technology is being created, the pace at which computer engineers develop technology is
extremely fast
And what they create is most of the time not bad, not good but also not neutral
Ralf De Wolf explains different ways that you can look at technology
Most people have a deterministic view of technology
they do think technology is neutral (it just shapes certain things in society)
They think that how people use technology doesn’t matter
1
,Another view: instrumentalism
It is still neutral for them, but that it is up to individuals to decide how to use this
‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people’
Comparison: facial recognition technology to a gun (created) but they only kill someone if an
individual decide to kill someone else
In itself it can be an okay technology, it depends on how people use it
Another view: substantivism
Technology is an autonomous force and that even if you do not look at how people use it, it
is already inherently something that is bad
‘Guns are just meant to kill people’
How an individual uses this doesn’t really matter, it is the technology that kills people
Last view: critical theory (encouraged by Ralf De Wolf)
Technology is not neutral, it has certain values because it is developed by humans
But we do have agency as individuals individual can still decide how technology is used
we will have a look at these 3 different components and what you
need to consider if you want to regulate
1. TECHNOLOGY
Technological considerations:
- How is it designed?
- Which models are used?
- How does the algorithm work?
- How well does the technology work?
- How secure is the technology?
- Who has designed the technology?
2. ECONOMY
Economic considerations:
- What is the business model?
- Who are the economic actors in the tech sector?
For example.: Alphabet (YouTube, Android, Google, Play)
They have a huge power so it is important that they respect certain values
The power of a company in economic terms has societal consequences and is a reason
for policy makers to take action
The way in which certain platforms work had consequences
For example: two sided platforms like Uber person who needs to go somewhere and a
person with a car
You need enough drivers for the users and you need enough users for the drivers
For example: multisided platforms like Uber eats you have people who wants to eat
something, you have the restaurants and you have the drivers
- How much economic power do tech companies hold?
2
, - Which role do network externalities and lock-in-play?
‘lock in’ It can be difficult for you to switch to another service because you have
invested so much in a certain type of service
These are effects that regulators might not want
3. SOCIETY
Societal considerations:
- Is the use of certain technology desirable/ acceptable/ unacceptable?
- Are there potential negative effects related to use of the technology?
- How are values shaped by technology?
For example: fake news
For example: only 2 rooms available at booking scarcity effect
- Do individuals need certain skills to use the technology?
Everything in relation to media literacy and digital literacy sometimes technology is
quite complex and you need some skills and knowledge to be able to deal with it
You actually need to be taught about how AI works for example
Concrete example: Chat GPT
The technological aspect:
It actually important to know how it works, how these large language models work
It is actually not smart, it is just a predictive model
They are trained by huge data sets texts are illegally taken from the internet
Data sets are not super qualitative, but it is extremely fast and gives you a lot of interesting
information (but not always correct!)
The societal aspect:
Importance? it has a huge societal impact
If many people use it/rely on the information and the information is wrong, it can have a huge impact
As a society we do not really know what kind of data has been used the AI Act wants to change
this (more transparency)
There have been quite number of students who have used ChatGPT for course work which led to the
use of hallucinated sources they can’t participate by the reset and take the course again
It can have big consequences for some individuals
The economical aspect: you often use the free version, but you pay with your input data
You are not really sure what they do with it
Most of these generative AI Bots are made in only 2 countries: the USA and China
In these chatbots are certain worldviews that are favoured
For example: Deep sea
The entire executive team of OpenAI was at a certain moment in time under 40 years old so this
means that the language model reflects the thinking and knowing of one generation
And the language issue: accuracy of the answers will depend on the extent of the dataset and it is
much bigger when it comes to English than when it comes in Dutch
Other example: Instagram
The Digital Services Act has obliged the companies who run these big platforms to be able to
personalize your feed
It is interesting to see how the feed works for influencer content economical question
And important link between the economic and technological consideration is that the platform wants
you to stay as long as possible on it because you will see more advertising
3
