Abstract

Scholarly views diverge on how the law or legal rules should satisfactorily regulate the 4IR or 4IR technologies and algorithms. Some scholars postulate that because the 4IR develops rapidly the law should consequently be tightened to control the ever-changing character of these innovations. This exists because of the propensity of the technologies developing beyond state or government control. With this development, legal rules prove to be insufficient to manage the 4IR and control its algorithmic outcomes. Accordingly, regulators will often resort to, amongst others, over-regulations and dumb regulatory structures. The latter signifies frameworks which are not established from the proper understanding of the technologies to be regulated. They fail to provide adequate solutions to the whole technology regulatory agenda. Therefore, the contribution hypothesises that legal rules are not the solitary mechanism to the overall study of technology regulations. The way the 4IR intersects with ethics is essential to the creation of a smart way of regulating, that is, Smart Regulations. Smart Regulations accept that the essence of regulating is not championed though a single state actor. Instead, regulations are a collaborative (consumers, state, and stakeholders) process that enjoins regulators to scrutinise the ethical behaviour of the 4IR and 4IR technologies.