Juristic Personality Of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges From Theories Of The Nature Of Juristic Persons

Mayur Choudhary, National Law Institute University, Bhopal

Introduction

This study will be an attempt to identify the issues and analyze the debates relating to ‘imparting legal personhood to Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as ‘AI’) systems. The looming research question that will be dealt with in this paper is; whether the grant of juristic personality on Artificial Intelligence is dependent on different theories of the nature of juristic person.

Until now, legal personalities have only been granted to entities whose decision-making powers have been entirely vested in a human or a group of humans. This, of course, cannot be the case with Artificial Intelligence systems, which are capable of making a variety of decisions, both simple and complex, nearly autonomously and without the need for human intervention. It necessitates an understanding of existing personality models and determining whether they would be applicable to the technology in question. Assigning personhood to AI systems has socioeconomic ramifications because personhood entails a set of rights and duties.

It is important to note that legal personality is a tool for better governance, not a reward for becoming human-like. Legal personhood is a matter of convenience and practice, not whether the entity “deserves to be a person.”