Matt Perault says AI law should fit existing legal principles, not rewrite 1L
MattPerault · x · 2026-07-22
Matt Perault argues that AI policy should work within existing legal principles rather than rewriting first-year law for the technology.
- He says the U.S. legal system is built around durable rules about how harm is identified, how government power is constrained, and how accountability works.
- In his view, many AI proposals wrongly move toward AI-specific rules, ex ante permission, and departures from technology-neutral law.
- He argues that the legal system has already absorbed prior technological waves — from cars to the internet — without abandoning its foundations.
- The piece concludes that lawmakers should regulate real AI harms, but do so through the existing legal framework instead of creating a separate legal regime for AI.
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