is law ready for ai personhood?

“The future of AI is in our hands”-Tim Cook

 Artificial Intelligence has become part of human’s everyday life despite profession. It is involved in so many fields, such as-art, medicine, education etc. Globally it is considered that AI is a tool which may be so helpful in everyday life. It is absolutely true, because every person, at least once in his life, has asked some questions about artificial intelligence. The most important mission, which law has, is to be in touch with social life, and challenges of humanity. Law is a source of help and justice, that’s why it must respond to modern needs, otherwise, law will lose its mission. It’s interesting, what perspective exists regarding the involvement of artificial intelligence in legal relations. The issue is so relevant, because some people think that AI will replace humanity in many fields, law is one of them. People believe that lawyers will no longer be necessary, because AI will solve their legal problems. Opposite to this statement, others say that this kind of opinion is so dramatic and does not reflect reality. This article is exactly about the future of law and AI.

It’s important to mention that despite strong connections between humans and AI programs, the concept of thinking robots is so new to humanity. That’s why even legal systems need time to adapt to this new era of technology. Countries and authorities coordinated cooperation is so important to make a legal framework for AI. At this point, involvement of important global or regional organizations is so essential. For example, the United Nations, one of the most important and influential global organizations in the world, which constantly works to deal with modern challenges, made an important step towards regulation of artificial intelligence.

In 2023, the Secretary-general of the UN made a high-level advisory body to analyze the current situation and make recommendations for member states about the functioning of artificial intelligence. This body was created with 33 states and their official representatives. It was created on 26th October of 2023 and was working for the next 12 months. That was one of the most important messages for the world, because the UN showed that AI is an important issue to discuss and it (AI) is no longer part of the future. It is clear that humanity should act now for a better future. Another important organization which has a significant role in developing regulations about AI, is the European Union.

The Committee on legal affairs of the European Parliament in the 2017 report said that the civil liability for damage caused by robots is a crucial issue which also needs to be analyzed and addressed at Union level. The European Parliament called on the commission to develop special legal status for electronic persons. These regulations will help to impose liability on AI and it will help injured parties to apply to the court because of damages caused by artificial intelligence. One of the most important conceptions of future regulations about AI, is making a new legal person, for instance, called electric person. This issue will be discussed later on in this article. This concept was shared by the European Parliament too. So, involvement of these two most important and influential organizations shows a significant example for other countries and individuals too to work on the legal  framework of AI. 

We should realize that adopting law to AI and modern technical challenges won’t be easy. One of the main reasons for this opinion is that AI is a new and complicated device. Even scientists don’t have much information about this. That’s why discussions about making a legal framework for AI functioning aren't so common between authorities or lawyers. But one thing is doubtless-law systems should pay attention to AI’s abilities and risks connecting to it. People have so different opinions about the future regulations in this field. Some people think that AI should have a legal personality, as individuals or companies have in the legal system. It will be a really important step for future regulations, because if AI had legal personality, it would be easier to impose legal liability for its actions. This statement may be so compelling, but it’s important to discuss some problematic aspects of this opinion.

First of all, we shouldn’t forget that the concept of legal personality has some criteria. For instance, normally a legal person (despite we talking about individuals or companies) has its own property, holds rights and obligations, has a right and ability to enter into contracts and has ability to sue and be sued in the legal person's own name. Sometimes it may be hard to discuss AI's future legal personality regardless of these important criteria. On the other hand, it’s important that conception of legal personality should develop according to modern social life. It is recognized under national and international law that every single legal person may not have the same legal features. That’s why working on creating legal status for AI should be meaningful and helpful at the same time.

On the other hand, if lawyers grant legal personality to artificial intelligence, it could be held liable in tort. Because of this AI may be liable to compensate a harmed party for damages resulting from its actions using its own property. The question is-can AI have its own property? Some people are more doubtful about the necessity of legal regulations in this field. They think that AI lacks sufficient  value to warrant legal regulation. 

Regulation of AI is so important, because it can cause harm to other people just like other individuals or companies. For example, criminal liability is not always connected with murders. A person may impose legal liability for abuse or insult. On the other hand, harm to someone’s professional reputation may also be against law. AI can do all of them. For instance, AI may generate fake songs, novels or articles so close to reality that people can’t differentiate AI generated and original work.

At this time, it may be so hard and sometimes unbelievable, to proof, that you are not the author of some piece of work. There were so many facts in the past about AI insulting people or lead to suicide. If a person will be damaged by this kind of AI, he/she will have a feeling of unfairness. He/she may consider that law is not effective any more, because it couldn’t protect him/her. 

Lawyers should realize that AI is absolutely opposite to humans or legal creations, because it is an electric system, which generates information automatically and it lacks a mind and human-like cognitive abilities. This may be so important in criminal law, for example, where motivation of a criminal act is essential. Despite AI programs that can respond to questions or generate some kind of documents, people should realize that AI can’t make it independently. In simple terms, AI programs work depending on the information, which was loaded in the program. That’s why some people think that law systems shouldn’t grant a legal personality to an artificial intelligence. It is not a creature which can act and think independently. This may be one of the reasons why the European Parliament resolution of  2019 no longer addressed the legal personality of an AI. 

To conclude, law isn’t ready for the comprehensive process of the integration of artificial intelligence into legal systems. But as practice shows, international organizations, countries or lawyers should think about this issue, because soon the time will come when artificial intelligence will be stronger than it is today and legislative changes may be delayed. So, as Tim Cook says “the future of AI is in our hands” and we should work hard to receive benefits from AI and prevent ourselves from bad sides and negative effects of artificial intelligence.