Legal Personhood for Artificial Intelligences
Open accessAbstract
Could an artificial intelligence (AI) become a legal person? As of today, this question is only theoretical. First, putting the AI debate in a concrete legal context acts as a pragmatic Occam’s razor. Second, and more controversially, the people can view the legal system as a repository of knowledge—a formal accumulation of practical judgments. Is artificial intelligence possible? The debate over this question has its roots at the very beginning of modern thought about the nature of the human mind. The classical discussion of the idea of legal personhood is found in John Chipman Gray’s The Nature and Sources of the Law . The responsibility objection focuses on the capability of an AI to fulfill its responsibilities and duties. In considering the various objections to constitutional personhood for an AI, the people have been making the assumption that the AI could pass a strong version of the Turing Test.
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The Liability Convention establishes a restricted framework for assessing international liability which only applies to a launching State.
“The Liability Convention establishes a restricted framework for assessing international liability which only applies to a launching State [248].”
From Applications and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in Space Missions (2024) · cites this paper as [248]
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- Authors
- Solum, L. B.
- Affiliations
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Solum, Lawrence B.
- ORCID
- Solum, Lawrence B.
- Venue
- Machine Ethics and Robot Ethics
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Published
- 2020-09-10
- Pages
- 415-471
- OpenAlex
- W315586105
- Cited by
- 296
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 261.57
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- papers.ssrn.com
- Locations
- Routledge eBooks (publishedVersion)
- University of North Carolina School of Law Scholarship Repository (University of North Carolina Hospitals) (submittedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Literary and Philosophical Studies
- Social Sciences › Law › Digitalization, Law, and Regulation
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Artificial Intelligence in Law
- Keywords
- artificial intelligence, legal personality, Turing test, AI rights
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