A Supreme Court justice has added his voice to calls for the regulation of computer algorithms handling crucial decisions about people's lives. An'expert commission' could help ensure that automated decision making processes have'a capacity for mercy', Lord Sales (Philip Sales QC), said last night. Presenting the British and Irish Legal Information Institute's Sir Henry Brooke Lecture, Lord Sales said the growing role of algorithms and artificial intelligence poses significant legal problems, in particular around the fundamental concept of agency. Existing prejudices could be embedded in hidden rules that are impossible to challenge, he said. 'AI may get to the stage where it will understand the rules of equity and how to recognise hard cases, but we are not there yet.'