I Prompt, Therefore I Am
When people think of risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI), Hollywood looms large. Movies have long conjured the worst case scenarios: from Hal refusing to open the pod bay doors in 2001, to a murderous Arnold Schwarzenegger travelling back through time. If there is a robot apocalypse, however, it is unlikely to resemble a Terminator […] more…
Meritocracy 2.0
[Straits Times] Traditional measures of merit have served their purpose. Enabling everyone to flourish — even as artificial intelligence threatens to outshine us all — requires that we diversify those yardsticks, while also being clear that they should not define a person’s worth or limit their potential. It’s admissions season for universities and, as […] more…
AI-generated content is taking over the world. But who owns it?
[Straits Times] When artificial intelligence produces artwork and text indistinguishable from human creations, are the economic foundations of creativity under threat? Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ve probably seen works of art or text produced by artificial intelligence (AI). Tools such as Stable Diffusion can generate images […] more…
Can Universities Teach Students to Be Good?
[Straits Times] University marks the time when students take more responsibility for their educational journey. Is that the best time to impart values? Or the worst? Recent debates in Singapore about cheating by aspiring lawyers during the bar exam could be the tip of the iceberg. Around the world, the swift move to online […] more…
We Need to Move Beyond the Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Debate
[THE] Academics are agonising over the wrong elements of online education. They should be thinking about active versus passive learning. Over the course of the pandemic, educators – like everyone else – were forced to rethink the way in which we do our job. And, like most people, we responded by seeing how we […] more…
Rethinking University Education
[Straits Times] Computers know everything and artificial intelligence is acquiring the skills to apply that knowledge. What is there left to teach? Once upon a time, education meant the transmission of knowledge. Teachers and professors like me were in possession of that knowledge, and we were paid by students (or their parents, or the […] more…
Two Cheers for AI Ethics
[Nikkei] Last week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization announced that it had concluded the first global agreement on the ethics of artificial intelligence. Its Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, declared that this was a “major answer” to the need for rules to ensure that AI benefits humanity. The caveats came thick and fast. The […] more…
The Case for an International Artificial Intelligence Agency
Self-regulation and national regulation of AI won’t be enough. Even the EU can’t save us. The case for an International Artificial Intelligence Agency. Earlier this year, the European Union proposed a draft regulation to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens from certain applications of artificial intelligence (AI). In June, the Biden Administration launched […] more…
The Robot Judge Will See You Now
[Straits Times] Could artificial intelligence regulate itself? As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms modern life, regulators around the world are grappling with how to reap its benefits while minimizing its risks. Earlier this year, the European Union proposed a draft regulation on certain aspects of AI. Last month, China adopted its new state-centric Data Security Law, […] more…
Scholar, Advocate, Judge: James Crawford 1948–2021
James Crawford, who passed away on Monday, was the most influential Australian international lawyer of all time. Many of us in the field hope for some measure of success as scholars, advocates, or perhaps as a judge. Crawford’s greatness in all three areas might have been infuriating had he not retained his humour, his modesty and […] more…
The Robot Century
[Straits Times] Robots have been part of human culture for a hundred years. How can we ensure that they support — rather than supplant — humans over the next hundred? The word ‘robot’ entered the modern lexicon a hundred years ago today with the première at Prague’s National Theatre of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. […] more…
Your Data or Your Life
[Straits Times] Data, in particular personal data, is often described as the ‘new oil’ powering the information economy. It’s an attractive metaphor — evoking transformations underway in a fourth industrial revolution, heralding a world of artificial intelligence and limitless possibilities. Unfortunately, that metaphor is wrong in almost every way. Oil is finite, companies pay millions […] more…
The Curious Case of How Big Firm Lawyers and Female Lawyers Perform in Court
[Straits Times] Does the quality of a lawyer affect your chances of winning a case in court? Should it? Earlier this week, non-essential court proceedings resumed in Singapore after two months on hold due to the Covid-19 circuit breaker. In most cases, lawyers will continue to appear remotely before judges via teleconference. Trying to […] more…
Covid-19 and the Global Legal Disorder
[Straits Times] When the world restarts and the masks are put away, will the global legal order look the same? Should it? A crisis is a terrible time to make predictions about the future. But it’s a great time to rethink dubious assumptions of the past, and address tensions revealed in the present. Just […] more…
Facing Up to Facial Surveillance
[Straits Times] The benefits of facial recognition technology are that it offers a quick, non-invasive means of identifying people. Those are also its dangers. Last month it was reported that facial recognition will be used to take attendance in Singapore’s Parliament and check into certain hotels. The latest phones already unlock with Face ID and many […] more…
Should Robots Be Given Rights as Well?
[Straits Times] As computers surpass human intelligence and take on greater responsibilities, should they be given rights also? Earlier this month, the Bank of England announced that Alan Turing would be featured on the new fifty pound note. The last to switch from paper to polymer, it is due to enter circulation in late […] more…
Should We Regulate A.I.? Can We?
[Straits Times] Artificial intelligence is viewed by many as the defining technology of the 21st century. But how can we ensure that its benefits outweigh the potential risks? This week marked a grim anniversary of sorts for artificial intelligence (AI). On a Sunday night this time last year, Elaine Herzberg stepped off an ornamental […] more…
Are University Students Products or Customers?
[Straits Times] The Times Higher Education World Academic Summit begins today in Singapore, including the launch tomorrow night of the World University Rankings 2019. But how should we value a university education? Discussion about proposed changes to the pathway to legal practice in Singapore has tended to focus on whether this will make it […] more…
Kofi Annan: Great Expectations
It says much about the UN Secretary-General that the two men widely regarded as the greatest to hold the office went in with the lowest expectations. Dag Hammarskjöld was an unknown Swedish civil servant who found out he was a candidate for the position when he received the telegram offering it to him. He went […] more…
Singapore’s Biggest Ever Data Breach May Give Privacy New Life
[Straits Times] Reports of the death of privacy are greatly exaggerated. This might seem an odd opening line, with Singapore still reeling from its worst ever data breach, in which the personal details of 1.5 million people were stolen from SingHealth. But as the country realigns its economy and its public institutions to take advantage […] more…
That’s Academic
[Straits Times] Earlier this month the National University of Singapore announced that in place of a three- or four-year programme leading to a degree, the University would commit itself to a two-decade relationship with students. Is it time to rethink the role of higher education? For centuries, universities have operated on the assumption that […] more…
The Fall and Rise of Legal Education in Singapore
The sixtieth anniversary of legal education in Singapore offers a chance to look back on the history of the rule of law in Singapore — and forward to how the practice of law is changing. Six decades ago, the first law students enrolled as colonial subjects in the new Department of Law of the University […] more…
Privacy and Our Digital Selves
[Straits Times] By October, the lamp posts on Singapore’s Orchard Road and in selected housing estates will be doing more than just illuminating the street. With cameras and other sensors they will capture real-time information on traffic flow, the environment, pedestrian movement — and, potentially, security threats. In his National Day Rally last month, Prime […] more…
What’s in a Name?
Last Monday, the National University of Singapore named its Centre for Law & Business after EW Barker, Singapore’s longest-serving Minister for Law. The Prime Minister and members of the Barker family attended the launch. A day earlier, on the other side of the world, the United Nations withdrew its support of a West Bank Palestinian women’s […] more…
Don’t Study Law
Students across Singapore are currently considering university programmes in which they have been offered a place. They routinely seek advice from family and friends, as well as attending open houses and reading materials on official Web sites and social media. But what if they could give themselves advice? Letters of the Law is a student-led […] more…
Trump and the Triumph of Kakistocracy
And to think it was in the dictionary all along: “Trumpery. Noun. Worthless nonsense; tawdry finery. From the French tromper, to deceive.” We are now into the second month of the three-ring circus that is the Trump presidency, as what seemed inconceivable became unbelievable but is now undeniable. In an electoral upset that made the […] more…
Do Driverless Cars Dream of Electric Sheep?
[Straits Times] Autonomous vehicles offer the prospect of safer and cheaper transportation of people and goods. But as Singapore sees the first driverless taxis take to the roads, technology has raced ahead of our laws — and our morals. Last week, the world’s first driverless taxi service began picking up passengers on Singapore’s roads. It […] more…
Digital Security: You Are the Weakest Link
[Straits Times] Singapore’s decision to cut Internet access from 100,000 public servants accepts the reality: the greatest vulnerability in any network is the people who use it. “The only truly secure system,” Professor Gene Spafford observed of computers in 1989, “is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed […] more…
Lies, Damned Lies, and the International Rule of Law
Imprecision of meaning in international law is rarely accidental. Diplomacy is an architecture of compromise, with states routinely adopting malleable or self-serving definitions depending on their interests or aspirations. So it is with the international rule of law. A decade ago, every member state of the United Nations recognized the need for “universal adherence to […] more…
Musing on Vampires and Writing a Teen Novel
As an academic and as a lawyer I am paid to organize words. Given the limitations of the alphabet and of space, enough monkeys at enough typewriters would eventually produce not only everything that I have ever written but the entire works of Shakespeare as well. “Eventually” is a fairly long time, however. In the […] more…
The UN Secretary-General in His or Her Labyrinth
[Straits Times] The race to find the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations is on. Whoever the new leader is, one of his or her challenges will be managing the all-powerful Security Council. The Secretary-General of the United Nations depends on the Security Council, especially its five permanent members, to get elected and to get […] more…
The Myth of Magna Carta
The Hereford Cathedral Magna Carta will be on display in Singapore’s Supreme Court from Thursday. But almost everything you think you know about this 800-year-old document is wrong. Magna Carta bears an iconic status in legal history. Signed eight centuries ago by King John at Runnymede, near Windsor, it laid the foundations for constraints on […] more…
I.O.U.
Bankruptcy may represent a financial failure, but recent changes to the law show that it need not be regarded as a moral failure also. Not long ago, a member of staff at an organization in Singapore told her boss that she was resigning. As she was a productive employee and had seemed happy, her […] more…
Who Wants to Rule the World?
How should we choose the next Secretary-General of the United Nations? Carefully, one might think. The first of the eight people who have held the office described it to the second as “the most impossible job on this earth”. Head of an international civil service, nominal commander in chief of 100,000 peacekeepers, and lackey of […] more…
Monitoring the Surveillance State
[Straits Times] Should we rein in the powers of the state by restricting its surveillance powers, or do some of our own monitoring by expanding those powers still further? Earlier this year, it was announced that officers from Singapore’s Bukit Merah West Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) would begin trials of body-worn cameras. The […] more…
Law 2.0
[Straits Times] In a world in which data and money no longer respect national borders, can law keep ahead of technological innovation? It can’t — and it shouldn’t. On 26 February 2015, the US Federal Communications Commission voted, 3-2, to reclassify broadband as a public utility. Regulators in the United States can now prevent Internet service […] more…
Why Not Torture?
Revelations in December 2014 that the CIA engaged in torture following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States should have surprised no one. But they may yet help to dispel the longstanding myth that torture works. The release of the long-awaited Senate report has filled in gruesome details of sleep deprivation, forced standing […] more…
Too Many Lawyers?
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Every lawyer is familiar with Dick the Butcher’s line from Shakespeare’s “Henry VI, Part 2”. Most also appreciate its double significance. Typically the line is invoked in jest — a shorthand example of the many jokes about lawyers that accuse our profession of being something […] more…
In Praise of Failure
It is graduation season in Singapore and many other parts of the world, as enthusiastic young men and women celebrate the completion of their degrees and diplomas. As is customary, we send these students out into the world with parting words of advice and, hopefully, wisdom. Much of this advice can seem generic, but last […] more…
Tinkering with the Machinery of Death
The death penalty is being reassessed in the three industrialised countries that continue to impose it: the United States, Japan, and Singapore. In centuries past, the death penalty was a spectacle for the masses. Four hundred years ago, those involved in the Gunpowder Plot — still merrily celebrated as Guy Fawkes Night — failed in their attempt to assassinate […] more…
Crimean War 2.0: Ukraine and International Law
Tomorrow, the people of Crimea will vote in a referendum on whether the peninsula should secede from Ukraine and unite with Russia. No one seriously doubts what the result will be. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approach to democracy is much like Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts: he prefers verdicts to be known in advance. […] more…
Protecting and Sharing Personal Data
[Straits Times] By the time Singapore’s Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry came into effect earlier this month, more than 400,000 numbers had already been entered online, by SMS, and by phone. Many Singaporeans, it is clear, are not particularly interested in unsolicited offers of investment advice, “exclusive” property offers, and so on. But the reaction to the […] more…
International Law and the Rise of Asia
The judgment by the International Court of Justice earlier this month on a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia demonstrated the importance of international law to Asia. But how important is Asia to international law? Asian countries are significantly under-represented in the institutions of global governance. Historically, the countries of the region have also played […] more…
Syria Deal No Utopia for International Law
Two cheers for international law! A month ago, when I first contemplated writing a piece for The Straits Times on Syria and international law, I was preparing for war. As someone who teaches international law, I must periodically explain to my students why countries like the United States occasionally break the law. Until a few […] more…
Taking ASEAN Seriously
If ASEAN is ever going to play a meaningful role in dealing with regional crises like haze, its members need to agree to carry out their obligations — and show that they have done so. THIS FRIDAY, Singapore celebrates its 48th National Day with the traditional parade and grumbling over songs. The day before, Singapore […] more…
US Intelligence, Inc.
[Project Syndicate] Among the stories and rumors prompted by Edward J. Snowden’s leaking of classified material – whistleblowing or treason, depending on where you stand – the revelations that may actually lead to a policy change concern the extent to which private companies now carry out intelligence collection and analysis in the United States. Around a […] more…
Getting Used to a Surveillance Society
Outrage at the United States National Security Agency’s collection of data misses the point: The focus should be on how the data is being used. HOW should we balance liberty and security? The answer is simple: We shouldn’t. The metaphor of a “balance” between liberty and security offers an attractive way to view the […] more…
Lee Kuan Yew the Lawyer
On 4 June 2013, the National University of Singapore conferred an honorary degree of doctor of laws on Singapore’s founding prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. I was asked to serve as the public orator, describing some of Mr Lee’s achievements in support of the award. But what was there to say about Lee Kuan Yew […] more…
A Chat Room of One’s Own
[Straits Times] The Internet has had a greater impact on access to information than any development in human history, with the possible exception of the invention of writing. We are more connected and better informed than ever before. So why does it often feel like what takes place on the Internet is so dumb? Two […] more…
Why Study?
With the release of A-level results earlier this month, students across Singapore — and their parents — are contemplating the next step in their education. Nearly 30 percent of the cohort will go to one of Singapore’s five autonomous universities, a number set to grow to 40 percent by 2020. With a further 10 percent […] more…
Climate Change: What Do We Owe the Future?
The bushfires that continue to ravage Victoria and New South Wales this Australia Day have added another nail in the climate change sceptics’ coffin: the temperature on the ground was literally off the charts. Previously capped at 50 degrees centigrade, Australia’s meteorologists recently had to add two new colours — deep purple and pink — […] more…
How Best to Protect Kids Online
[Straits Times] How many “friends” does your child have online? Who reads her blog or sees the pictures she uploads? And what survey forms is she filling in to win a chance at a prize? Some parents will know some of the answers to some of these questions. But it is highly unlikely that any […] more…
Snowplough Parenting
Next week around 12,000 Singaporeans enter our university system. These students are privileged in many senses of the word. But their entry to university may have been helped by factors that will ultimately limit their ability to succeed. For many students, the path to university was made easier by hyper-attentive parents and an army of […] more…
Who Killed Privacy?
[Straits Times] It is more than a decade since the former CEO of Sun Microsystems infamously declared that privacy was dead, urging the reporters who had asked him about the subject to “get over it”. That was before the launch of Facebook, Google’s Street View, the iPhone, and a proliferation of other tools that many […] more…
Academic Freedom in New Haven and Singapore
On April 5, Yale faculty will vote on a resolution challenging the Yale-NUS College, the liberal arts programme that will admit its first students in August 2013. The resolution reflects three distinct concerns about the joint venture. The first is an internal matter to Yale and relates to the decision not to seek a formal vote […] more…
Singapore and the Rule of Law
The rule of law is like oxygen: easily taken for granted, but quickly noticed when it is absent. If you have it, the rule of law makes organised society possible. If you lack the rule of law, it is a recipe for disorder and corruption. An extreme example of the absence of the rule of […] more…
A Little Less Privacy, a Bit More Security
The European Union has announced that it will overhaul its data protection rules in 2011. Later this month, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Commerce Department will release their own reports on online privacy. Meanwhile, as part of the much-hyped efforts to prepare for “cyberwar,” the U.S. National Security Agency is strengthening ties with organizations […] more…
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