Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

David Mordecai, Samantha Kappagoda and John Shin Co-Authored Article “Objects May be Closer Than They Appear – Part 2” in ABA SciTech Lawyer

David K.A. Mordecai, Samantha Kappagoda and John Y. Shin co-authored the second installment in a two part series of articles published in the Winter 2023 Issue of the American Bar Association (ABA) SciTech Lawyer. The article is entitled Uncertainty and Reliability Implications of Computer Vision Depth Estimation for Vehicular Collision Avoidance and Navigation.

Recent events accompanying increased adoption of machine learning applications of computer vision to safety-critical use-cases for cyberphysical systems has sharpened focus on the necessity of risk mitigation, reliability, safety, and security. An emergent risk domain across embedded cyberphysical systems involves the proliferation of camera-based autonomous driver assistance and vehicular navigation systems and the application of computer vision technology to perform the complex tasks of depth estimation, as well as object detection and image recognition. The second installment in this series will primarily focus on depth estimation tasks associated with operating and environmental conditions as well as spatial and temporal scales generally applicable to urban settings.

ABA SciTech Lawyer endeavors to provide information related to current developments in law, science, medicine, and technology of professional interest to members of the ABA Section of Science & Technology Law.

Mordecai and Kappagoda are active members of the ABA Science and Technology (SciTech) Law Section. Ms. Kappagoda has been newly appointed as Vice-Chair of the Big Data Committee, and Vice-Chair of the Internet of Things Committee. She was reappointed, and continues to serve as Vice-Chair of the Insurance Technology and Risk Committee since 2019. Dr. Mordecai has been reappointed as Chair of the Space Law Committee, and Co-Chair of the Nanotechnology Committee, and previously also served as Vice-Chair of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics from 2018 to 2022. In addition, Dr. Mordecai has been an invited speaker at the AI & Robotics Institute in both 2021 and 2020. Both Kappagoda and Mordecai were invited speakers at the 2019 American Bar Association Annual Meeting and 34^th Intellectual Property Law Conference (ABA-IPL).

Dr. Mordecai, Ms. Kappagoda and Mr. Shin previously authored Part 1 of the aforementioned article in the Fall 2022 Unintended Consequences issue of ABA SciTech Lawyer. In addition, Dr. Mordecai previously authored The Critical Role of Transmission and Storage Capacity in Balancing Intermittent Generation and Transient Load, in the Winter 2023 issue of ABA Natural Resources and Environment, as well as Automated Personal Assistants with Multiple Principals: Whose Agent Is It? in the Winter 2020 edition of ABA SciTech Lawyer.

Dr. Mordecai and Ms. Kappagoda are President and Chief Economist, respectively, of Risk Economics, Inc. Dr Mordecai is also Adjunct Professor of Econometrics and Statistics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU, advising research at RiskEcon^® Lab @ Courant Institute. Ms. Kappagoda is also Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU, co-advising research at RiskEcon^® Lab @ Courant Institute. Mr. Shin is Senior Research Associate (Enumeration Evaluation Lead) at Numerati Partners.

About Risk Economics, Inc.

Risk Economics specializes in economic analysis of risk and liability. It provides advisory services at the intersection of commercial business-process engineering and risk engineering with a particular focus on coupling commercial reinsurance and financial technology, through the rigorous application of agent-based, demographic, and statistical methodologies to microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis.

The Risk Economics^® client roster is diverse and includes governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, global insurance and reinsurance firms, leading law firms, technology firms, global banking institutions, asset management firms, multinational corporations with interests in natural resources, commodities, and energy, as well as government agencies and regulators.

David Mordecai, Samantha Kappagoda and John Shin Co-Authored Article “Objects May be Closer Than They Appear” in ABA SciTech Lawyer

David K.A. Mordecai, Samantha Kappagoda and John Y. Shin co-authored an article published in the Unintended Consequences (Fall 2022) Issue of the American Bar Association (ABA) SciTech Lawyer. The article is entitled Objects May be Closer than they Appear: Uncertainty and Reliability Implications of Computer Vision Depth Estimation for Vehicular Collision Avoidance and Navigation (Part 1 of 2).

Recent events accompanying increased adoption of machine learning applications of computer vision to safety-critical use-cases for cyberphysical systems has sharpened focus on the necessity of risk mitigation, reliability, safety, and security. An emergent risk domain across embedded cyberphysical systems involves the proliferation of camera-based autonomous driver assistance and vehicular navigation systems and the application of computer vision technology to perform the complex tasks of depth estimation, as well as object detection and image recognition. The first installment in this series will primarily focus on depth estimation tasks associated with operating and environmental conditions as well as spatial and temporal scales generally applicable to highway, rural and suburban settings.

In addition, Dr. Mordecai has been an invited speaker at the AI & Robotics Institute in both 2021 and 2020. Both Kappagoda and Mordecai were invited speakers at the 2019 American Bar Association Annual Meeting and 34^th Intellectual Property Law Conference (ABA-IPL). Dr. Mordecai previously authored the article Automated Personal Assistants with Multiple Principals: Whose Agent Is It? in the Winter 2020 edition of ABA SciTech Lawyer.

About Risk Economics, Inc.

The Risk Economics client roster is diverse and includes governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, global insurance and reinsurance firms, leading law firms, technology firms, global banking institutions, asset management firms, multinational corporations with interests in natural resources, commodities, and energy, as well as government agencies and regulators.

Legal Tech News Features David K.A. Mordecai as an Invited Panelist at ABA SciTech AI and Robotics National Institute

Legal Tech News featured Dr. David K.A. Mordecai as an invited panelist at the American Bar Association (ABA) SciTech Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics National Institutes Conference, which was held on October 12-13, 2021.

David K.A. Mordecai and his co-panelists discussed ways in which data supply-chain activities might incur liability related to data acquisition, curation, warehousing, use, dissemination and agency. During the panel discussion, Dr. Mordecai highlighted the roles of statistics, economics and digital forensics for analyzing risk and liability exposure of data acquisition, collection and curation, to mitigate data and algorithmic bias and corresponding liability exposure, and noted “You cannot regulate something that you do not understand.”

David Mordecai currently serves as Chair of the Nanotechnology Committee, Vice-Chair of the Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Committee and Co-Chair of the Space Law Committee, of the ABA Science & Technology Law Section. Dr. Mordecai is President and Co-Founder of Risk Economics and Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU, co-advising research activities at RiskEcon^® Lab for Decision Metrics @ Courant Institute.

About Risk Economics
Risk Economics provides advisory services at the intersection of commercial business-process engineering and risk engineering with a particular focus on coupling commercial reinsurance and financial technology, through the rigorous application of agent-based, demographic, and statistical methodologies to microeconomic and macroeconomic analytics. The Risk Economics^®client roster is diverse and includes governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, global insurance and reinsurance firms, leading law firms, technology firms, global banking institutions, asset management firms, multinational corporations with interests in natural resources, commodities and energy, as well as government agencies and regulators.

David K.A. Mordecai was Invited to Present at the 2021 ABA Artificial Intelligence and Robotics National Institutes

David K.A. Mordecai, President of Risk Economics, was invited to present at the American Bar Association (ABA) Artificial Intelligence and Robotics National Institutes conference on October 12-13, 2021. This year’s conference was held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In the panel entitled Data Dump: How to Deal with a Heap of AI Big Data Liability and Compliance Issues, David K.A. Mordecai and his co-panelists discussed ways in which data supply-chain activities might incur liability related to data acquisition, curation, warehousing, use, dissemination and agency. During the panel discussion, Dr. Mordecai highlighted the roles of statistics, economics and digital forensics for analyzing risk and liability exposure of data acquisition, collection and curation, to mitigate data and algorithmic bias and corresponding liability exposure.

David Mordecai is the Chair of the Nanotechnology Committee, Vice-Chair of the Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Committee and Co-Chair of the Space Law Committee, of the ABA Science & Technology Law Section.

About Risk Economics
Risk Economics provides advisory services at the intersection of commercial business-process engineering and risk engineering with a particular focus on coupling commercial reinsurance and financial technology, through the rigorous application of agent-based, demographic, and statistical methodologies to microeconomic and macroeconomic analytics. The Risk Economics^® client roster is diverse and includes governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, global insurance and reinsurance firms, leading law firms, technology firms, global banking institutions, asset management firms, multinational corporations with interests in natural resources, commodities and energy, as well as government agencies and regulators.

David K.A. Mordecai Authored Article Automated Personal Assistants with Multiple Principals: Whose Agent Is It? in ABA SciTech Lawyer

David K.A. Mordecai authored an article published on January 17, 2020 in the Winter edition of the American Bar Association (ABA) SciTech Lawyer entitled Automated Personal Assistants with Multiple Principals: Whose Agent Is It?

The term automated personal assistant (i.e., virtual assistant) commonly refers to mobile software agents that perform tasks or services on behalf of an individual (i.e., the device user or application user) based on a combination of user input, location awareness, and the ability to access information from a variety of online sources (e.g., weather conditions, traffic congestion, news, stock prices, user schedules, retail prices, etc.). This article highlights some open questions and foundational principles relevant to contract and tort liability implications of software agency in this context.

David Mordecai is President of Risk Economics, Inc. He is an active ABA member, has been a speaker at ABA events and serves as Vice-Chair of the Science & Technology Law Section Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee as well as the Nanotechnology Committee.

David K.A. Mordecai was Invited to Present at the ABA Artificial Intelligence and Robotics National Institutes

In the panel entitled Investigations in the Era of AI, David K.A. Mordecai discussed practical implications of mathematical statistics, computational inference, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of large-scale, data-intensive technical investigations, e.g. algorithmic trading platforms, as well as for very large and highly complex litigations across finance and insurance, among other sectors:

Computational Forensics and technical aspects of evidentiary burden and standards for admissibility and weight of machine testimony and machine behavior
Principles of machine testimony and digital forensics: data adequacy, data sufficiency and representativeness
Inherent limitations of data and algorithms: data bias, sampling bias, algorithmic bias, software and hardware errors
Foundational technical principles and the fundamental forensic reliability of evidence and scientific analysis

Dr. Mordecai served on the planning committee for this first-of-a-kind National Institute, assisting in shaping the agenda and speaker lineup. He is a regular speaker at ABA events and serves as the Vice-Chair of the ABA Science & Technology Law Section’s Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee and also the Nanotechnology Committee.