Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

As businesses move quickly to adopt artificial intelligence agents, contracts for their development and implementation raise novel questions around ownership, accountability, and risk. In this first post of a two-part series, we explore why these issues matter and what technology and sourcing lawyers should be considering as clients engage vendors in this emerging space.

Join us for our Technology Marathon, an annual series of tailored webinars focused on hot topics, trends, and key developments in the technology industry that are of essential importance to our friends and clients. Now in its 15th year, our expansive curriculum kicked off after AI Boot Camp in April and continues into December.

Our Morgan Lewis colleagues recently wrote on the US administration’s new artificial intelligence action plan, specifically as the plan seeks to foster innovation and expedite the development of AI data centers and the necessary energy infrastructure required for such expansion.

In an era when data is everything, everywhere, all at once and computation has almost no limit, ensuring privacy while leveraging data analytics is paramount. The US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently published NIST Special Publication 800-226 (the Guidelines), a comprehensive guide for evaluating and achieving differential privacy, a cutting edge approach to protecting individual privacy when using and relying on large datasets.

In a recent LawFlash, a team of Morgan Lewis lawyers wrote on the enactment of the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA), which will enter into force on January 1, 2026. This legislation marks a significant step in regulating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within the state of Texas. TRAIGA is broad in scope: applicable to any individual or entity, including government agencies, developing AI systems in Texas, offering a product or service used by Texas residents, or promoting, advertising, or conducting business in the state.

New York state lawmakers on June 12, 2025 passed the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act (the RAISE Act), which aims to safeguard against artificial intelligence (AI)-driven disaster scenarios by focusing on the largest AI model developers; the bill now heads to the governor’s desk for final approval. The RAISE Act is the latest legislative movement at the state level seeking to regulate AI, a movement that may continue to gain momentum after a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation was removed from the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill.

In a recent LawFlash, a team of Morgan Lewis lawyers wrote on New York state’s enactment of the Fashion Workers Act, which took effect on June 19, 2025. The act mandates model management companies to register their businesses while imposing a range of duties on both these companies and their clients, including a fiduciary duty applicable to all aspects of “negotiations, contracts, financial management, and the protection of the models’ legal and financial rights.”

In an earlier two-part series, we explored key factors for companies and influencers to consider when drafting and negotiating influencer agreements to advertise and market products and services on social media.

In our March 2024 blog post Study Finds Average Cost of Data Breaches Continued to Rise in 2023, we highlighted the key findings of the Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023. Each year, the report sets forth a vast dataset analyzing data breaches at hundreds of organizations to spot trends and developments in security risks and best practices. The Ponemon Institute recently published its Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, showing an increase in data breach costs in many areas of business.

Whether form or template agreements are for a company’s own services or are used for the procurement of goods and services, leveraging forms can be a useful tool to maintain consistent terms and conditions. With the advancement and growth within the artificial intelligence (AI) market, including new and enhanced products and services that incorporate AI, now is a good time to revisit and refresh template agreements.