1. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Overview The problem of liability Realistic risk areas Possible solutions Legal personality

2. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Liability in legal systems Harm + intention / foreseeability + causation Crime – Civil tort – Crime + Tort Examples A puts poison in B’s soup A puts poison in a bowl of soup in the kitchen A stores poison near to the soup bowls C manufactures poison, sells some to A

3. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Liability – the problem with AI Complex or unpredictable systems Autonomous –dependent on input data or experience, or –so complex that humans cannot predict Is the behaviour foreseeable? Is there a new cause?

4. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell AI – a practical definition “A computer system whose function is substantially determined by its experience rather than by its original programming.” Experience can include: training and feedback, user input, data mining, or the system’s own prior analysis of a problem.

5. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Vicarious liability Liability for objects I am controlling Liable if my car runs into someone Liable if my horse kicks someone Liable if my dog bites someone Liability for the acts of another person Liability for the act of my child Liability for the act of my employee

6. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Who is liable? The system developer? The owner? The operator? The user?

7. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell 6 stages of deployment 1. Idea 6. Public release   2. Hardware design 5. Limited trial   3. Software design  4. System training

8. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell The example of Tay Chatbot – emulating teenager Responds to text and photo Tweets Response is based on –Public data –Editorial content from ‘comedians’ –Personalized response based on user language The problem: responds to everything

9. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Controls on corporate behaviour Criminal law Regulatory law Civil law –Product liability (tort) –Contract law – but only with contracting party Public opinion Private reputation + customer experience

10. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell AI does not care Narrow AI cannot ‘know right from wrong’ Law – morality – customary behaviour Child education – home + school Prisoner’s Dilemna AI is: –Goal driven –Not personally responsible  no detriment –Duplicatable (phoenix system)

11. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Classifying AIs Narrow AI General AI Mobile Sedentary

12. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell System for discussion “Limited general AI” –Sedentary –General machine learning algorithms –Natural language processing –Internet connected, access to all data –Milestones: Tell fact from fiction Answer homework like a smart 12 year old Defeat any Captcha

13. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Realistic risk areas Hacking and cyber crime Intellectual property theft Financial crime Distortion of search results / news articles Misrepresentation (libel or slander) Racism, hate speech, pornography and other inappropriate communication

14. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Societal risk AI in control of essential utilities could start to function erratically Other unpredicted behaviour Accidental harm vs. intended harm AI access to unrelated but crucial systems through hacking or accidental interaction

15. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Regulation is no solution Paper by MATTHEW SCHERER 29 H ARV. J L & TECH Problems: 1.Stifling effect 2.How can a regulator identify the risk? 3.Cross-border / jurisdictional issues 4.The real risks are in deployment

16. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Legal personality A legal person has its own rights and responsibilities –can own property –direct legal liability Corporate entities have legal personality

17. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell AI-controlled company Directors  Rest of world AICorporation

18. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell Self-owned AI AICorporation  Rest of world  Corporation AI

19. It wasn’t me, my robot did it! Conrad McDonnell cm@taxbar.com