Oliver Roberts is Editor-in-Chief of AI and the Law at The National Law Review, Co-Head of the AI Practice Group at Holtzman Vogel, and CEO/Founder of Wickard.ai
As 2024 comes to a close, it’s time to look ahead to how AI will shape the law and legal practice in 2025. Over the past year, we’ve witnessed growing adoption of AI across the legal sector, substantial investments in legal AI startups, and a rise in state-level AI regulations. While the future of 2025 remains uncertain, industry leaders are already sharing their insights.
Along with 2025 predictions from The National Law Review’s Editor-in-Chief Oliver Roberts, this article presents 65 expert predictions on AI and the law in 2025 from federal judges, startup founders, CEOs, and leaders of AI practice groups at global law firms.
Oliver’s Predictions for AI Regulation: In 2025, I do not expect Congress to pass any comprehensive federal legislation that limits or prohibits the use or development of AI. However, I expect more federal investment in AI research and education and the imposition of more restrictive export controls on the export of AI technologies to adversarial nations.
While plaintiff publishers battle AI companies in court over alleged copyright infringement, I do not expect Congress to step into this copyright debate in 2025. Even though copyright law falls within Congress’s purview in the U.S. Constitution, I predict that Congress will let the cases play out in court before Congress steps in. Still, Congress will likely monitor this situation in 2025 because an adverse ruling for AI companies could significantly impair the LLM training and development process in the U.S. and have harmful downstream effects for U.S. innovation and national security.
I predict that President-elect Donald Trump will fulfill his campaign promises by revoking President Biden’s Executive Order on AI (E.O. 14110) in January 2025 and replacing it with an order prioritizing AI innovation and investment. President Trump’s appointment of David Sacks as “White House AI & Crypto Czar” also portends a free market approach to AI in the coming year.
Similarly, I do not expect any federal agencies to issue regulations restricting AI use or development in 2025. During the Biden Administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Election Commission (FEC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) refrained from issuing new regulations on AI. Under the Trump Administration, I predict the same inaction—with one caveat. Despite his restrained approach to AI regulation, incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has supported FCC rulemaking requiring callers to disclose their use of AI-generated calls and text messages. With public comment completed and this proposed rule still pending, it is possible that the FCC issues final rulemaking in 2025—although I find it unlikely that the FCC would ultimately deviate from the Trump Administration’s laissez-faire approach to AI regulation.
Read full article
https://natlawreview.com/article/what-expect-2025-ai-legal-tech-and-regulation-65-expert-predictions
