The rapidly advancing area of artificial intelligence will require a newfield of law and new regulations governing a growing pool of businesses involved, accordingto Microsoft Corp., a 25-year participant in AI research.

Companies making and selling AI software will need to be heldresponsible for potential harm caused by “unreasonable practices”– if a self-driving car program is set up in an unsafe mannerthat causes injury or death, for example, Microsoft said. And as AIand automation boost the number of laborers inthe gig-economy or on-demand jobs, Microsoftsaid technology companies need to take responsibility and advocatefor protections and benefits for workers, rather than passing thebuck by claiming to be "just the technologyplatform’’ enabling all this change.

Microsoft broaches these ideas in a 149-pagebook entitled “The Future Computed,” which will also be the subjectof a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, nextweek. As Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft seeks to be a leaderin AI and automating work tasks, it’s also trying to get out infront of the challenges expected to arise from promising newtechnologies, such as job losses and everyday citizens who may behurt or disadvantaged by malfunctioning or biased algorithms.

“We are trying to be clear-eyed in talking about thechallenges,” said Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer BradSmith, who will sit on the Davos panel and co-wrote theintroduction to the book.

Microsoft is working on some of these areas through groupssuch as the Partnership on AI, which includes rivals likeAmazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc. and FacebookInc. Still, the call for more regulation in anemerging area like AI is unusual for technology companies,said Ryan Calo, a professor at the University ofWashington School of Law, who has read the book.

“There are a bunch of players in this space, and if you areMicrosoft you want to be seen as trusted,” said Calo, who did notassist the company on the book but has consulted forit on other issues and whose lab is partially funded withdonations from Microsoft. Whatever the company’s motivations, thearea is an important one, Calo said. “Any sufficientlytransformative technology is going to require new laws,” hesaid.

Both Microsoft and Calo say the development of newlegislation isn’t imminent because the specific needs arestill emerging. Over the next two years, Microsoft plans tocodify the company’s ethics and design rules to govern its AIwork, using staff from Smith’s legal group and the AI group run byExecutive Vice President Harry Shum. The development of laws willcome a few years after that, Smith said.

In the nearer term, Microsoft is advocating for changes to laborlaws to properly classify workers and allocate benefits like healthcare and retirement planning to people with jobs such as an Uberdriver or Postmates delivery person. Smith expects there will be aneed for a new category of worker to cover these employees, who areneither full-time nor independent contractors, he said.

“The technology industry needs to engage to change theperception that it reaps the benefits of technology progress at theexpense of workers who are displaced or left without protections,benefits or long-term career paths,” the company writes in thebook. “Companies that do not acknowledge the importance of workerprotections and benefits risk damage to their brands and face thepossibility that lawmakers and the courts will step in to imposeregulations.”

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