The technological revolution that enabled the circulation of information in real time and allowed the massive interaction of people on social networks imposed challenges to the legal world, due to the difficulty of regulating this new environment, cyberspace. The theme guided the interventions on Wednesday afternoon, closing the cycle of Workshops on the third and final day of work at the 7th Lisbon Legal Forum, an initiative of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the Brazilian Institute of Public Law (IDP) and the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL).

They composed the first table in panel 3 of the cycles of Workshops, Dan Wielsch, post-doctoral student at the University of Frankfurt, president of the Civil and Legal Law Council and professor at the University of Cologne, who spoke about the regulation of private law of digital intermediaries, Domingos Farinho, Doctor of Law and Professor at FDUL, who spoke about the type of regulation admissible in this environment, and Ricardo Campos, PhD student in Law and Assistant Professor at the University of Frankfurt, who focused on the discussion in Brazil and on how the use of the internet and digital platforms in the country evolved. It was coordinated by Mariana Melo Egídio, PhD student in Law and professor at FDUL.

Digital platforms have impacted business modeling related to content production and information circulation, which have gained a global dimension in the last 15 years. New technologies facilitate the collection and processing of data by algorithms. As a result of this change, there was a need to discuss regulation. In Brazil, it was done late by the Internet Civil Framework in 2014 and new forms of regulation are under discussion.

The first detection of a negative effect of this process occurred in the Arab Spring. For Campos, that was the beginning of questioning the aggregation or disaggregation power of social networks. And then it would have become clear that, through Twitter and Facebook, a new possibility opened up for public movements that were no longer mediated by associations, unions, and political parties. People gathered on the streets because they were on social media.

The challenge would therefore be to think about and propose concrete ways to deal with the negative effects that may be produced by social media, such as the dissemination of Fake news.

The second panel in the afternoon was composed of Thomas Vesting, Doctor in Law and Political Sciences from the University of Tübingen and professor at the University of Fankfurt, Fabro Steibel, PhD in Communication from the University of Leeds, executive director of the Institute of Technology & Society of Rio de Janeiro and professor at the Higher School of Advertising and Marketing (ESPM), Alexandre Zavaglia, PhD student in Law from the University of Campinas and Director of the São Paulo Institute of Public Law, Guilherme Machado Dray, Doctor of Legal Sciences and Professor of FDUL, José Leovigildo Coelho, PhD student in Technologies and Artificial Intelligence applied to Diagnostic Medicine from the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and Coordinator of Information Technology at FGV, and Juliano Maranhão, Post-PhD in Computer Science at the University of Utrecht, Researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Visiting Professor at the University of Frankfurt and Professor at the University of São Paulo (USP).

New and challenging issues have emerged with technological advances. None is more challenging than thinking about the application of artificial intelligence and the use of robots in hitherto only human activities. Robots, according to Steibel, can be used to produce content for social networks, but when we think about the disinformation industry, we see their misuse: “These social media robots generally don't use artificial intelligence. They're simply programs designed to look human.”

More sensitive and ethical issues arise in the wake of the development of robotics and artificial intelligence and the more intensive use of these technologies, such as the debate surrounding the legal personality of robots. If there is interaction between the human being and the robots, how will the responsibility for the use be given, will it be the one who creates and/or programs and makes the robot's choices? Where is the thin outline that determines the ethical limits of such research and advances?

The use of robotics, on the other hand, is growing in the legal environment. Coelho points out its use in the analysis of fraud in documents, data and emails, in the analysis of documents and contracts, in the reading, segmentation and registration of initials, in the analysis and predictive suggestion of decisions (based on data and history), in the suggestion of correlated jurisprudence, in the pre-formatting of documents, of electronic petitioning and support in the resolution of conflicts, among other uses.

Steibel presented data from a pilot test in which 20 documents were passed to 20 lawyers and to an algorithm trained to find the errors. The accuracy rate for artificial intelligence was 95%, that of lawyers 86%; the average execution time for lawyers was one hour and for artificial intelligence was 26 seconds. “I imagine that the results found here are possibly the reality today or very close,” he said, who believes that, in the legal field, there will be a great increase in the use of artificial intelligence.

Zavaglia also showed how technology is helping to classify information and read legal documents, “not only understanding it as a word search engine, but understanding the context”. He emphasized, however, that organized data is lacking so that the technology can work well in the area of law, so he has been working on the development of registration software.

Regarding the labor market and robotics, Dray said that there has long been talk of massive unemployment as a result of the replacement of human labor by machines, but that is not what is being seen, in fact. Today, what is observed with intensive technology is the growth of productivity, which, on the contrary, enabled the emergence of new activities. He recognizes that the topic is complex and the discussion is necessary because, without a doubt, technology impacts forms of work, which can harm the social rule of law, generating social conflicts and unemployment. But the debate must take place, without panic. Coelho quoted John F. Kennedy in 1962, who said that human beings had the talent to invent the machines that expelled men from work, but they have the talent to bring them back.

Thomas Vesting spoke about what changes in the public sphere with artificial intelligence, the concept of unbundling and the new digital model to be applied in the public sphere.

Check out the full workshop Regulation of information in cyberspace at the 7th Lisbon Legal Forum:

Check out the full workshop Robotics and artificial intelligence at the 7th Lisbon Legal Forum:

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