Litigation partner Katherine Forrest, corporate partner Jonathan Ashtor and ESG and Law Institute Executive Director and Paul, Weiss Sustainability and ESG Advisory Practice Co-Chair Dave Curran co-authored an “Expert Opinion” column in Corporate Counsel, “The Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and ESG,” published on June 20.
The authors examine the extraordinary potential of AI tools to advance ESG goals, such as ensuring company compliance with ESG guidelines and regulations through large-scale data review, generating policies and procedures that better align with prior ESG commitments, and quantifying the progress of ESG initiatives, among others. They also outline the potential pitfalls of leveraging AI tools, such as data set biases, environmental tradeoffs, governance and reputational considerations, potential litigation and deal-related risks, while noting that many concerns can be mitigated by taking inventory of available AI tools and understanding how they function.
“To mitigate risk, AI should be explainable, trustworthy and reliable,” the authors note. “The use of AI tools may also require new or revised frameworks, standards, regulations and codes of conduct, as well as multi-stakeholder dialogue, consultation and collaboration.”