Law and Technology

Last year, Attorney General Rob Bonta — as well as Kathy Jennings, the attorney general of Delaware — signed off on OpenAI’s corporate restructuring, albeit with a list of conditions. As a result, it’s dubious whether Musk has the legal right — known as “standing” — to bring a case, some legal experts said. If he ends up winning the lawsuit, the case will likely be appealed on that basis, said Vince Joralemon, a senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law and Technology.

“Nobody was talking about it,” said Berkeley Law J.S.D. candidate Mahwish Moazzam. “But when we look into these (apps), these tools are not merely making mistakes, they are reshaping how people are represented in digital spaces. And when that reshaping repeatedly (erases) visible religious markers of identity, the issue is no longer technical. … It is discrimination, it is exclusion and it is a question of human dignity.”

“(AI is) very related to how we win conflicts,” said Professor Chris Hoofnagle. “If these (military) decisions are not made correctly, we could kill innocent people with devices and in ways where the human is disconnected, so it’s a profound ethical issue confronting our generation.”

Vincent Joralemon, director of the Life Sciences Law and Policy Center at Berkeley Law weighs in on patent disputes in the sector of fitness tracker devices. 

“The Chief Privacy Officer Program reflects that commitment, offering rigorous, practice-informed training for the peopleresponsible for privacy and AI governance at the highest levels of decision-making, in California and beyond,” said Eric Askins, assistant dean for innovation at Berkeley Law.

“Protecting youths online will be the defining internet policy battle of 2026,” writes Professor Catherine Crump.

Colleen Chien, a professor of law at U.C. Berkeley School of Law, told Mashable that companies can be more careful when licensing their technology by creating a “vetted partner” program that places key restrictions on the licensee. This process could include requiring licensees to complete certification or training to ensure they’re using the technology safely and appropriately.

In holding the startup to account for these tragedies, the families were testing a legal argument that hasn’t yet won in court. But the mere prospect of the families winning likely pushed Google to settle, according to Vincent Joralemon, the director of the Berkeley Law Life Sciences Law & Policy Center. Joralemon said a single wrongful death lawsuit can result in a $20 million to $100 million judgment because the damages are meant to punish the companies, not just pay the wronged plaintiffs. Joralemon said that level of legal risk extends to the entire AI industry.

Should disputes over the images wind up in court, Vincent Joralemon, director of the Life Sciences Law & Policy Center and UC Berkeley’s law school, said he wouldn’t want to be charged with defending them. That’s because the victims of such images were likely to find sympathetic judges and jurors, he said.

“Everyone talks about leadership as influence,” writes Angeli Patel, executive director, Berkeley Center for Law and Business. “I think it’s more like stewardship: of attention, energy, and discernment. And in this AI-driven, globally-unstable moment, the real leaders are the ones who can say no to speed and create solutions with calm.”