Artificial Intelligence

Providing practical guidance for clients who are developing, leveraging or investing in artificial intelligence

Capabilities at a glance

  • Practical advice grounded in thorough knowledge of current regulations governing artificial intelligence (AI) and the insight necessary to anticipate future developments.
  • Partnering with clients to clarify AI goals and craft customized solutions specific to their AI needs.
  • Counsel on the breadth of AI-related legal matters across practices, including Business Law, Data Privacy & Security, Health & Life Sciences, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment, Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Product Liability.

AI regulations – A moving target

AI presents extraordinary opportunities and poses many new challenges related to data privacy, intellectual property (IP) rights, health care, regulatory compliance, ethics, employment, product liability, discrimination and social justice. New regulations are being developed to mitigate these risks and to shape how AI will be used in the future. Regulations will be a work in progress for the foreseeable future given the complications, and clients need a dynamic and educated attorney team that can track and adapt to these developments.

An AI team clients can count on now and in the future

Quarles has built an AI team dedicated to providing practical and thoughtful legal advice on AI-related matters. Our AI team attorneys:

  • Appreciate the paradigm-shifting power of AI to change business and personal realities at an unprecedented speed.
  • Understand AI use cases continue to advance and that its opportunities and risks will continue to rapidly evolve for many years.
  • Understand governing entities are struggling to comprehend AI implications and to craft new regulations that protect stakeholder rights while at the same time unleashing the promise of AI.
  • Present clients with solution options and associated risks, including combinations of technology selection, regulatory compliance, AI governance and terms in AI provider agreements.
  • Develop and help implement client AI governance programs, tools and processes clarifying prohibited and encouraged AI use, freeing employees to confidently pursue AI opportunities via encouraged use.
  • Critically contemplate and report on AI advancements and probable regulatory IP-related responses given existing and evolving governmental policies and societal values.
  • Prepare and present IP AI presentations to client technical, legal, managerial and administrative employees designed to educate on AI-related IP opportunities and risks, as well as best practices and governance policies and tools.
  • Recognize the role of emerging standards, like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, for developing practical, risk-balanced and trustworthy AI, and also as a potential defense under a new AI law.
  • Have a deep and nuanced understanding of how existing regulations apply to current AI technologies in the Business Law, Data Privacy & Security, Health & Life Sciences, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment, Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Product Liability practices.
  • Are intensely curious about and dedicated to researching and analyzing new AI capabilities as well as evolving regulations, risks and opportunities.

News & Insights

Service Areas

  • Business Law

    Quarles works closely with company founders, executives, directors, general counsel and other company stakeholders in the implementation, risk management and compliance aspects related to the use of AI. We also assist AI-powered companies, or companies where AI is a critical component of their business plan, in finance and capital investment rounds (including representing investors in AI startups), mergers and acquisitions, and other corporate transactions. Our support for AI-related M&A transactions includes negotiation and drafting of data privacy and security-related agreements, as well as agreements that allow for transfer of deidentified or anonymized healthcare data to be used as an asset for AI training/modeling.

    Where appropriate, our corporate transactional attorneys have used AI software during the transaction management process to create efficiencies and improvements that benefit our clients and minimize risk in areas such as representations and warranties, due diligence and contract review.

  • Data Privacy & Security

    It is critical for organizations to evaluate and identify how they, their employees and their third-party vendors are using AI technologies. Implementing policies, providing training and updating contract provisions all are important steps to help mitigate the risks associated with the use of AI. Quarles’ IT and data privacy attorneys advise clients on the technology and privacy implications of AI, including data input, contracting and risk management considerations. We provide counsel on an array of matters, such as:

    • Counseling on AI risks.
    • Counseling on AI governance for development, deployment and decommissioning of AI tools.
    • Consent for collection and use of data for training AI.
    • Licensing data for training AI.
    • Anonymization analysis for data for AI training under various data privacy regimes, including GDPR and various state privacy laws.
    • Wearables incorporating AI for consumer experience.
    • Draft of AI policies for companies of various sizes.
    • Negotiating and drafting contracts for licensing and/or development of AI tools.
    • State law developments on use of AI in hiring and employment.
  • Health & Life Sciences

    Our health care team delivers practical, business-oriented counsel focused on allowing our clients to proactively address information technology, privacy and security issues. Our experience includes:

    • AI considerations in FDA medical device and wearables.
    • Ethical considerations and examination of bias, transparency and unintended outcomes in implementing AI in health care.
    • Assessment of practice of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, etc., issues when using AI.
    • Assessment of corporate practice of medicine issues.
    • Negotiating contractual terms for deployment of AI in the health care space.
    • Advising regarding patient/provider consent for data collection and use of AI in treatment.
    • Mitigating risk associated with use of AI by payers and providers.
    • Tracking development of AI guidance, including National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rulemaking for AI in Certified Health IT (HTI-1).
    • Development of AI governance and related policies for AI tools to address specific health care regulatory concerns.
    • Deidentification analysis for HIPAA data for AI training.
  • Intellectual Property

    For more than a decade, our IP team has persistently partnered with clients to identify AI innovations and related strategic goals. We work side-by-side with our clients to craft customized strategic IP plans using an arsenal of patents, trade secrets and copyrights that are optimally combined to protect those AI innovations and to achieve those strategic goals.

    In addition to protecting our clients’ AI innovations, we also counsel our clients on the competitive, infringement and other IP-specific risks associated with adopting and implementing AI in their business. AI can accelerate and improve innovation, at once affording opportunities for early and creative AI adopters and causing existential risks for competitors that fail to embrace AI fast enough.

    Our clients include organizations creating and leveraging cutting-edge AI tools, such as research institutions and companies in the health care, big data, bioinformatics, industrial manufacturing and controls, physical and cyber security, consumer products, genetics and navigation industries, among others.

    AI strategic counseling

    • Educating clients on IP risks associated with AI use, including possible loss of patent rights, loss of trade secret rights, loss of copyright protection, liability for inequitable conduct, and potential patent and copyright infringement.
    • Preparing right-to-use and invalidity opinions on patents claiming AI-related inventions.
    • Generating state-of-the-art opinions identifying AI IP assets that pose risks to client AI use.
    • Collaborating with clients to design around AI-related inventions owned by others.
    • Negotiating license deals with AI providers to minimize or eliminate AI use IP risks.

    AI protection

    • Managing patent portfolios covering AI technologies developed by nationally renowned research institutions in health care and other industries.
    • Partnering with clients to understand AI IP goals and to craft client and project-optimized combinations of patents, trade secrets and copyrights designed to achieve those goals.
    • Preparing and prosecuting sophisticated patent applications protecting inventions that use AI.
    • Employing progressive innovation mining, patent drafting and prosecution strategies developed to secure ownership of AI-related innovations based on current regulations as well as possible and foreseeable regulatory changes.
    • Employing progressive and aggressive innovation mining, patent drafting and prosecution strategies developed to directly target and dominate a competitor’s future AI-related innovations.
    • Preparing and implementing trade secret protection programs tailored specifically for protecting AI-related innovations.
    • Preparing and prosecuting copyright applications protecting work product developed by humans and augmented by AI.
  • Labor & Employment

    AI has the potential to save HR professionals hundreds of working hours so that their focus can remain on managing employees, but AI’s unchecked use could also lead to allegations of discrimination or harassment, so caution and careful assessment is required. We help our clients navigate the risks and benefits of employing AI as an HR partner, including best practices for using AI tools to do a preliminary review of resumes, evaluate interviewees and periodically check in on employee productivity and performance, post-hire. We also help our clients determine when to permit their workforce to use generative AI to increase their productivity without sacrificing the quality of their work. This includes drafting policies regarding AI usage and the investigation and discipline of non-disclosed or otherwise dishonest uses of generative AI.

  • Litigation & Dispute Resolution

    AI technologies offer ways for companies to achieve better outcomes and, as a result, companies are rapidly adopting AI in a myriad of ways to meet business objectives. Our team of highly skilled attorneys is at the forefront of working with clients as they do so to address and reduce risks where possible while paving the way for companies to embrace such evolving technologies.

    We work with our clients to explore and develop a business-focused strategy for incorporating AI and for addressing the assignment of liability that may arise, so our clients are well poised to understand and maneuver the risks, better protect themselves and work to assign some predictability in the outcome of AI-related disputes.

    In addition to advising clients on AI litigation matters and strategies, our attorneys incorporate AI as an integral part of litigation support, where appropriate, to capitalize on efficiencies for the benefit of clients. We have incorporated AI-driven tools to streamline outcomes for some clients, including in conducting discovery, performing research, drafting documents, organizing data, evaluating claims and making data-driven recommendations. Our litigators combine the efficiencies of AI tools with their own legal, ethical and professional judgments to deliver outstanding results.

  • Product Liability Litigation

    Products big and small, industrial and consumer, are increasingly incorporating AI technology. The use of AI has great potential for improving product safety and promoting efficiency. But it also poses new risks and raises novel questions of liability when personal injury or property damage occurs. Our Product Liability team has the knowledge and experience to manage those risks and rectify any potential liability. Our representative experiences include:

    • Implementing front-end strategies to limit product liability and defense costs, including:
      • Allocating liability through contractual indemnities and warranties, releases and assumption-of-risk provisions.
      • Staying abreast of industry standards and best practices.
      • Documenting processes and testing.
      • Drafting product instructions and warnings.
      • Developing training programs.
      • Tracking performance data.
    • Representing manufacturers, distributors and lessors in litigation involving AI-powered or AI-assisted products, including vehicles, industrial products and heavy equipment, and industrial processes.
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