John Weaver, an attorney at McLane Middleton who focuses heavily on emerging tech, including artificial intelligence (AI), self-driving vehicles, and drone technology, leads an informative discussion on the legal issues that will arise as emerging technologies infiltrate the marketplace.

Mr. Weaver works with clients from varying fields and assists them with best practices, helps them prepare and respond to legal issues, and assists with regulation compliance—especially privacy and data security regulations. Weaver explains how these compliance issues are particularly important with emerging tech such as AI and autonomous technology because personal data is the figurative fuel that fires the engine for these technologies. Thus, companies need to have a solid understanding of what they are legally allowed to do with the volume of personal data connected to various technologies.

The telecommunications and technology attorney lays out some of the legal issues that companies will face as the coming years bring more data via streaming, high-speed internet, and sophisticated 5G networks. Weaver gives an overview of blockchain transactions and the data privacy issues that are facing players in that industry. As blockchain involves lists of permanent records secured by cryptography, bundled data may sometimes be in violation of privacy laws. 

As the use of blockchain expands, attorneys such as Weaver will be needed to help clients walk carefully through the minefield of prickly data privacy regulations that are required by various governments and organizations. Additionally, Weaver will delve into the current legal inadequacies within the confluence of intellectual property (IP) and AI laws. Specifically, he'll explain how advancing technologies will expose further limitations in IP as it relates to protected data versus public domain.

The technology attorney details how limited legal personhood, as is sometimes used to establish legal structures regarding corporations, will be used for autonomous vehicles as they begin to populate our roads and highways in higher numbers. Once established, manufacturers and users can worry less about liability issues and more about perfecting and using the technology that most current data predicts will ultimately make our roads safer.