Alphabet, the parent company of Google GOOG, is the leading tech company that decided to invest a lot of resources and funding in artificial intelligence. So much so, that the WSJ recently announced that AI is central to Google's future. Not surprisingly, Google has been dealing with different challenges concerning its top AI executives and researchers. Activists shareholders are also showing interest in this. Recently, there is a rise in shareholder proposals calling on boards to ensure proper AI governance.

John Armour is Professor of Law and Finance and Horst Eidenmueller is the Freshfields Professor of Commercial Law, both at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford. This post is based on their recent paper. In a recent essay, we explore the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for corporate law. Today, corporate law is primarily understood as a means of facilitating productive activity in business firms. On this view, it is a predominantly private endeavor, concerned with helping parties to lower the costs they encounter.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics have already become part of our daily lives. AI is becoming highly autonomous by day and acquiring more and more cognitive abilities. Moreover, some futurists such as Elon Musk believe that AI may acquire such high powers that it may even impose a threat on mankind. Well, it cannot be denied: AI has already become a part of society. Since ethics and legal rules are the underlying ingredients of a functioning society; where does AI fit in to all of this?

The first job after law school can be horrendous--not simply because of the intense workload and long hours, but also the drudgery. A huge amount of legal work given to those on the lowest rung of the ladder consists of reading through hundreds of pages of notes, articles, and case precedents, to provide senior lawyers with legal details that can help build their case. Fortunately, artificial intelligence is up to the task. So much so that century-old law firm BakerHostetler has formally hired its first "digital attorney," ROSS, as an artificially intelligent legal researcher. ROSS is working with BakerHostetler's bankruptcy team as part of a partnership first announced last month, at Vanderbilt Law School's "Watson, Esq." conference on law and artificial intelligence.