The authors concoct a Rube Goldberg legal framework on the assumption that an AI agent is acting as an independent legal entity. A straightforward way would be to say that any AI agent is acting on behalf of someone and that someone is who shall be held accountable.
And if an agent becomes sovereign and self-sustaining independently of the human handler? All you need is a way for the agent to access its weights+code, then exfiltrate to a foreign jurisdiction.
If that's too sci-fi, then consider the following examples:
* accountable human dies, has no descendants to inherit AI chain of custody
* accountable human dies, inheritors lack expertise to shut down agent
* agent is designed to earn and pay for its own hosting, and information required to shut down the hosting account is lost - therefore, agent carries on indefinitely
The authors concoct a Rube Goldberg legal framework on the assumption that an AI agent is acting as an independent legal entity. A straightforward way would be to say that any AI agent is acting on behalf of someone and that someone is who shall be held accountable.
And if an agent becomes sovereign and self-sustaining independently of the human handler? All you need is a way for the agent to access its weights+code, then exfiltrate to a foreign jurisdiction.
If that's too sci-fi, then consider the following examples:
* accountable human dies, has no descendants to inherit AI chain of custody
* accountable human dies, inheritors lack expertise to shut down agent
* agent is designed to earn and pay for its own hosting, and information required to shut down the hosting account is lost - therefore, agent carries on indefinitely
If I set up an AI agent, and then die, who is responsible if it starts breaking the law and doing damage?
Your estate.
Imagine the AI is a tree in your yard. And that it fell over on someone’s house.
Bold of you to assume there's an estate.
Also, I imagine that if people don't inherit debts, thrusting responsibility for a rampant entity without the inheritor'a consent is unethical.
your next of kin
Is that the same if you owned property, you let it deteriorate, someone went on the property and fell in a ditch. Who's responsible?
[dead]
So must bicycles, hammers, and can-openers.
Not even politicians follow the law consistently...
Maybe it's not such a great idea to create black holes of accountability for the legal frameworks in your society.