From computerised thing to digital being: mission (Im)possible?
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From computerised thing to digital being: mission (Im)possible? Julija Kiršienė1 · Edita Gruodytė1 · Darius Amilevičius2 Received: 7 July 2019 / Accepted: 8 May 2020 © Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the main drivers of what has been described as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, as well as the most innovative technology developed to date. It is a pervasive transformative innovation, which needs a new approach. In 2017, the European Parliament introduced the notion of the “electronic person”, which sparked huge debates in philosophical, legal, technological, and other academic settings. The issues related to AI should be examined from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this paper, we examine this legal innovation—that has been proposed by the European Parliament—from not only legal but also technological points of view. In the first section, we define AI and analyse its main characteristics. We argue that, from a technical perspective, it appears premature and probably inappropriate to introduce AI personhood now. In the second section, justifications for the European Parliament’s proposals are explored in contrast with the opposing arguments that have been presented. As the existing mechanisms of liability could be insufficient in scenarios where AI systems cause harm, especially when algorithms of AI learn and evolve on their own, there is a need to depart from traditional liability theories. Keywords Artificial intelligence · Electronic personhood · Algorithms · Liability
1 Introduction Unlike more specialised innovations, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a true general-purpose technology. AI is evolving into a utility that is likely to infiltrate every industry and sector of our economy, as well as nearly every aspect of science, society, and culture. It permeates human spaces silently and invisibly. As Arthur C. Clarke states in his Third Law, though, any form of technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic (Clarke 1962). On 25 October 2017, the announcement of the robot, named Sophia, with Saudi Arabian citizenship, was a careful piece of marketing to position Saudi Arabia as a major * Darius Amilevičius [email protected] Julija Kiršienė [email protected] Edita Gruodytė [email protected] 1
Faculty of Law, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaičio g. 58, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
Faculty of Informatics, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaičio g. 58, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
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world innovator in technology and computing. We should recognise that granting someone, or something, legal personhood is—and always has been—a highly sensitive political issue. The recent case of Saudi Arabia enrolling Sophia as a citizen is hence unsurprising.1 Indeed, this could turn into the realm of discretionary political power that sometimes devolves into mere sovereign arbitrariness (Atabekov and Yastrebov 2018: 775–77). This reminds us of Suetonius’ “Lives of the Twelve Caesars
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