European courts address legal challenges posed by artificial intelligence

Legal authorities in France and Germany are addressing the implications of artificial intelligence in judicial and creative contexts.

The Administrative Court of Rennes has issued a warning regarding the uncritical use of generative AI in legal filings. The court noted instances where individuals submitted documents containing fabricated or erroneous references to laws and judicial decisions. While the court does not prohibit digital tools, it emphasized that the use of AI is not a valid reason for dismissal; rather, cases are rejected when filings lack sufficient factual or legal substance to be reviewed. One specific case involving a tax refund claim was dismissed because the arguments, likely generated by AI, failed to provide adequate legal explanations.

In Germany, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) is set to deliberate on a landmark copyright case concerning AI training. The dispute involves a professional photographer suing the provider LAION over the use of a dataset containing 5.85 billion text-image pairs. The ruling will help determine the legal boundaries of text and data mining, specifically whether copyrighted works can be used to train AI models without explicit permission from the rights holders.