AI in Parliament? United Arab Emirates Plans Automated Law Reform Process - 1

Image by Tom Chen, from Unsplash

AI in Parliament? United Arab Emirates Plans Automated Law Reform Process

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The UAE is pioneering AI-driven legislation, using artificial intelligence to suggest legal changes and reshape how laws are created and reviewed.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • UAE to use AI to draft and amend national laws.
  • AI aims to cut legislative time by 70%.
  • Regulatory Intelligence Office will supervise AI lawmaking.

The United Arab Emirates is planning to use artificial intelligence not just to speed up its lawmaking, but to help suggest changes to existing laws—a new move that experts say goes beyond what any other country is doing, as first reported by the Financial Times (FT).

“This new legislative system, powered by artificial intelligence, will change how we create laws, making the process faster and more precise,” said Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler and the UAE’s vice-president, as reported by the FT.

A new government office, the Regulatory Intelligence Office, will oversee this AI-driven lawmaking plan. The system is expected to track how laws affect the population and economy, drawing on a huge database of court rulings, public services, and both local and federal laws.

“The UAE appears to have an “underlying ambition to basically turn AI into some sort of co-legislator “, said Rony Medaglia, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, as reported by the FT.

The government hopes AI will make the legislative process up to 70% faster and reduce the costs of hiring law firms to review new regulations.

Vincent Straub, a researcher at Oxford University, noted that while the idea is innovative, it comes with risks. “They continue to hallucinate [and] have reliability issues and robustness issues […] We can’t trust them,” he warned, as reported by the FT.

AI models are prone to errors and can misunderstand human logic. The FT reports that Marina De Vos, a computer scientist at Bath University, explained that AI might suggest solutions that make sense to a machine but are completely impractical in real-world human society.

Despite these concerns, some experts believe the UAE’s top-down approach makes it easier for the country to push forward with such radical innovation. “They’re able to move fast. They can sort of experiment with things,” said Keegan McBride from the Oxford Internet Institute, as reported by the FT.

What remains unclear is which AI system the UAE will use—and how it will make sure human oversight is strong enough to avoid mistakes.

Humanoid Robots Run First Half Marathon Alongside Humans In Beijing - 2

Photo by Steward Masweneng on Unsplash

Humanoid Robots Run First Half Marathon Alongside Humans In Beijing

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Humanoid robots ran for the first time in a half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday. Twenty-one bipedal machines from different makers joined thousands of human runners in the 21.1-kilometer course.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • 21 humanoid robots run a half marathon alongside humans for the first time in Beijing.
  • The robot winner was Tiangong Ultra, built by the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics.
  • The machine Ultra finished the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

According to Reuters , the record of the first robot that made it to the finish line was 2 hours and 40 minutes, accomplished by Tiangong Ultra from the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics. The winner of the human race finished in 1 hour and 2 minutes.

The robot participants were of different shapes and sizes, one of the tallest measured 1.80 meters (5.9 ft), and there were humanoid machines as short as 1.20 meters (3.9 ft.

“The robots are running very well, very stable … I feel I’m witnessing the evolution of robots and AI,” said He Sishu, one of the spectators who works in AI.

Humanoid robots competed against humans in a Beijing half-marathon — and lost. Here are the highlights (and lowlights). pic.twitter.com/tLmJl4Qeun — DW News (@dwnews) April 21, 2025

The race had been rescheduled from April 13 to April 19 due to weather conditions, as a cold front with extreme winds was expected for that day. This Saturday, even with better weather conditions, not all robots made it to the finish line. One of the robots fell at the beginning and struggled to continue, and another crashed into a railing.

According to AP , all robots were accompanied by human navigators and had their lane, separated from human runners with a divider as a safety precaution.

China has been making major investments in AI and robotics to develop new strategies for economic growth. Last year, China hosted the World Robot Conference (WRC) 2024 in Beijing , where multiple organizations and companies—including Tesla—showcased impressive humanoid robots.

The recent race was another way to demonstrate developments and new achievements in the sector. “A focus going forward for us will be industrial applications for humanoid robots so they can truly enter factories, business scenarios, and finally households,” said Tang Jian, chief technology officer for the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics.