Three Albuquerque-based companies and New Mexico State University will compete alongside nine out-of-state entities for $50,000 in cash prizes in this year's Hyperspace Challenge. Organizers of the challenge, now in its third year, selected a total of 11 companies and two universities to participate in the 2020 accelerator program, which will focus on developing new, innovative technology to help the U.S. Space Force provide satellites and spacecraft with remote, autonomous ability to manage problems. The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base launched the annual challenge in 2018 in partnership with the ABQid business accelerator run by CNM Ingenuity. The program pairs participating companies with government contractors to resolve critical issues, potentially leading to contracts to build new technology for the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal entities. The last two accelerators in 2018 and 2019 focused, respectively, on data analytics to manage reams of information received from space operations, and new technologies for small satellites.

"There was no need for outsider or third party research. If artificial intelligence sources were employed, no doubt counsel's preparation time would have been significantly reduced." The bench -- which is often criticized for not adapting to technology soon enough -- is clearly sending a message that AI is here to stay when it comes to the efficient practice of law. Carole Piovesan, a Toronto lawyer, makes an important point. "What we are seeing from the bench, at least, is that the courts are mindful of the use of this technology and are grappling with what it means for the litigation process," she says.

Is it the German operators that created the AI in 2016, or is it the deep learning machine itself? That was one of the questions a panel of intellectual property experts grappled with at an AI conference in Toronto hosted by Osgoode Hall Law School last week. As businesses struggle to keep step with the rapid advancement in AI, policies and laws are also being stretched, said lawyer Carole Piovesan of McCarthy Tetrault LLP. "Canada is really at the precipice, as is much of the world, of trying to define what its legal framework is going to look like in the face of AI," she said. "But with the current pace of AI innovation -- it's happening so quickly and it's of such a transformative nature -- that policy-makers are being forced to anticipate issues that don't necessarily exist here and now."