The United Arab Emirates has become the first country in the world to entrust artificial intelligence with the drafting and revision of its laws. This historic step forward also raises serious ethical and legal questions. The idea is no longer to confine AI to the role of a simple assistance tool, but to transform it into a true co-author of the country's legislative formulation. An AI-powered Regulatory Intelligence Office has been established to oversee this system and streamline the legislative process at the federal and local levels.
Faster, more precise laws
The stated objective is clear: to speed up the production of laws by 70%, make the texts more precise, and offer regular updates through the analysis of vast legal databases, judgments, and public reports. AI will thus be able to suggest changes or identify inconsistencies in more than a hundred texts, while monitoring their impact on society and the economy in real time. More than a simple observer, the system will above all make it possible to adapt laws to current practices, in a shorter timeframe.
Technically, the system is based on the latest advances in generative artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP). The models, trained on more than 100,000 legal texts, are thus capable of generating, revising, and evaluating draft laws, while assessing the theoretical risk level of each modification. The ecosystem in place links federal and local laws to judicial decisions and public services. In theory, it will create a dynamic and unified map of the law within the country. The United Arab Emirates also plans to rely on partnerships with international research centers to compare its legislation with the rest of the world. Towards algorithmic governance? On a social level, this innovation aims to make governance more efficient, transparent, and responsive. Emirati authorities see it as a way to overcome the slowness and compromises of their traditional parliamentary system. But this acceleration is also accompanied by debates on the risks of governance deprived of human decision-makers. The opacity and numerous hallucinations attributed to AI make the need for human supervision essential.
After appointing a Minister of AI in 2017 and investing massively in algorithmic education, the United Arab Emirates confirms its ambition to be among the world leaders in digital governance. This experiment, on the border of genres, could also inspire other countries.
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