Artificial Intelligence Key Legal Issues: A Comprehensive Overview for Businesses and Legal Professionals
Artificial intelligence has moved from research laboratories into the operational core of businesses across every industry, creating a rapidly evolving legal landscape that spans intellectual property, products liability, data privacy, employment law, antitrust, and regulatory compliance. This comprehensive guide examines the key legal issues arising from the commercial development and deployment of AI systems, including the protection of AI through patents, copyrights, and trade secrets; the unresolved questions of AI inventorship and authorship following Thaler v. Vidal; product liability frameworks for autonomous and semi-autonomous AI systems; data protection obligations under the GDPR, EU AI Act, and emerging U.S. state laws; workplace discrimination risks from AI hiring tools; antitrust exposure from algorithmic pricing; and the treatment of AI assets in commercial transactions and bankruptcy. The guide also surveys the global regulatory landscape, including the EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689), the December 2025 federal executive order on AI policy, and the growing patchwork of U.S. state AI legislation.