The United Arab Emirates is setting its sights on a futuristic approach to governance, announcing plans to use artificial intelligence to help write new laws and update existing ones. Officials believe this move could slash the time it takes to create legislation by as much as 70 percent.
It’s a pretty bold step. While other countries are dabbling with AI to summarise bills or streamline public services, the UAE seems to be going further. They envision AI actively crunching government and legal data to suggest changes and improvements to the country’s laws. “This new legislative system, powered by artificial intelligence, will change how we create laws, making the process faster and more precise,” said Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler, as quoted by state media. A new cabinet unit, the Regulatory Intelligence Office, has already been approved to manage this AI-driven effort.
The plan involves building a huge database of federal and local laws, court decisions, and other public sector information. The AI would then analyze this data to see how laws are actually affecting people and the economy, prompting suggestions for updates. Abu Dhabi has already invested heavily in AI, backing major tech funds, so this legislative push fits their broader strategy.
However, experts are sounding a note of caution. Researchers point out that AI isn’t perfect – it can still make things up (“hallucinate”) and has reliability issues. Vincent Straub, a researcher at Oxford University, warned, “We can’t trust them” entirely yet. There are also worries about biases creeping in from the data the AI learns from, and whether a machine can truly grasp legal nuances like humans do.
Still, the UAE’s ambition is clear. As an autocratic nation, it can often implement large-scale tech projects faster than many democracies. While the potential efficiency gains are attractive, ensuring human oversight and sensible guardrails will be key to making sure AI acts as a helpful co-pilot, not an unpredictable legislator.
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