AI & Law: Legal Personhood

Legal personhood and the extreme view of so-called Spontaneous AI

by Dr. Lance B. Eliot

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Key briefing points about this article:

• One means of applying the law to AI consists of considering how to best legally govern AI
• There are ongoing debates about whether AI should or should not have legal personhood
• Sometimes an argument is aided by looking at extremes
• An extreme viewpoint of today’s AI is the notion of a future kind of AI known as spontaneous
• Discussion of a spontaneous form of AI gives new potential insights for the governance of AI

Introduction

Whenever considering how AI and the law come together, it is useful to consider these two major paths: (1) applying AI to the law, and (2) applying the law to AI. There is no particular sequence or priority of the two paths. They are equally fruitful and of equal import.

Let’s herein tackle the application of AI to the law, and then come around to the application of the law to AI.