Pleading Table | LAW HUB discussed the topic The world cannot afford for us to get our approach to artificial intelligence wrong: How do we balance innovation and legal responsibility? The discussion featured a group of legal professionals and opened with remarks by @Muneer Al-Sultan, against a backdrop of rapidly growing investment in artificial intelligence technologies and the questions this raises about jobs, legal responsibility, and the limits of regulation.

@Maryam Al-Olaimi emphasized that artificial intelligence contributes to economic growth by boosting productivity, reducing costs, and accelerating the completion of work, but may also lead to the loss of some jobs and widen the gap between people with technical skills and those without them. She explained that the risk lies not in the technology itself, but in the absence of responsible management of the transformation it brings. She called for measuring its success not solely by profits and productivity, but also by its ability to deliver sustainable growth that protects workers’ rights and does not widen the social divide.

Regarding liability for harm, Waad Al-Otaibi@Waad Alotaibi said that identifying who is responsible is the foremost challenge: artificial intelligence may simply be a tool, while the decision to use it rests with a particular person or entity. The developer therefore cannot be held liable in every case, nor can a company be exempted merely because the error came from the system. Each case must be assessed individually, and clearer safeguards are needed to help those harmed establish their rights.

In the same vein, @Ayla Al-Shawaf explained that liability depends on the source of the error and each party’s role: if harm results from a defect in the system, the developer is responsible; if it results from misuse or reliance on outputs without verification, the user may be held responsible. She noted that distinguishing between these cases is difficult and stressed the need to update laws to define each party’s liability.

On legal regulation, Waad Al-Otaibi@Waad Alotaibi stressed the importance of keeping pace with technological development in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and its commitment to digital transformation and innovation, while establishing clear regulations that protect individual rights. She said the aim is not to restrict technology, but to ensure it is used responsibly and safely. Regulations should be proportionate to the level of risk in order to encourage innovation and investment. She added that clear regulations do not hinder innovation; rather, they build confidence in it and ensure it can continue.

In the field of justice, Ayla Al-Shawaf@Ayla Al-Shawaf explained that artificial intelligence can improve legal services by speeding up procedures, making it easier to search legislation and judgments, and helping prepare legal briefs. However, it should not be relied upon entirely, as it may provide inaccurate information or be affected by biases in the data on which it was trained, and it does not always understand the human and social circumstances surrounding a case. She stressed that lawyers must review and verify the information, and that the final decision must remain with the judge, since an error in a judicial decision could result in injustice or a violation of rights.

The session concluded by emphasizing the importance of balancing technological development with legal responsibility, so that the benefits of artificial intelligence can be realized without harming individual rights or the interests of society.