Legal Personhood for AI Systems: Lunchtime Lecture

Legal personhood status for non-human agents has been given significant academic attention in recent years. The discussion over robot personality was first formalized at the European Union level in 2017 when policy makers articulated the benefits of legal status for AI systems. Their perspective was that a specific legal status for AI systems would enable them the capacity to compensate for any damage caused by their actions. In response, the activist-penned «Robotics Open Letter» criticized this view, noting that AI systems are insufficiently advanced to warrant such a status. The debate has evolved further in the time since this 2017 episode, with legal and policy scholars adding nuance.

The DSI Community AI & Law invites to an interdisciplinary talk by Mr. Karl Reimer (PhD Researcher at UZH Faculty of Philosophy): First, he will motivate the work and define what is meant by legal personhood from a jurisprudence perspective. Then he will recount Visa A.J. Kurki’s Bundle Theory of Legal Personhood and show how AI systems can hold some – but not all – rights via their agential powers. He will show how such agential powers are correlative to legal authority and rights. Finally, he will illustrate how his argument would apply to various types of agents such as robots, while also highlighting differences as compared to traditional human personhood. There will be a chance to ask questions and discuss, followed by lunch.

This lunchtime lecture is open to anyone interested, but space is limited.

Registration / Anmeldung: Link

Organisation: DSI Community AI & Law

Contact / Kontakt: ai-law@dsi.uzh.ch