Terminology and Explanations
Robot Law and Artificial Intelligence
, Lecture 1 - Introduction to the course
Singularity If a robot becomes smarter than a person
Challenges for the law Liability
o Who pays for the consequences?
Accountability
o Who has the responsibility?
o If a firm is held liable for a product, you can still be held
accountable for using it/purchasing it.
Purchasing Sex robots, if it would be known to have a
devastating effect on humanity
Massive unemployment
Diff erent kinds of law restricti ons: Banning something completely
o Atomic bomb
Requiring a license
o So that something can be monitored or only used by trained
people
Stimulating developments
o By supporting research you can shift the attention level and
obtain more information on specific topics
Liability
o Someone can be held accountable if a certain invention fails
Protection over weaker parties (consumers, users)
o This way big firms cannot dominate the world
o Antitrust law
International agreements
o By setting international agreements, one can prohibit certain
technologies over the entire globe in order to achieve
worldwide needs and goals.
For example to prohibit the creation of killer robots
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS AND The goal of AI applications must be to create value for society .
OPPORTUNITIES AI o AI is a double-edged sword since the same potential that can
be used to improve the world can end up turning against us in
a lethal way.
Prior to the use of AI, all judicial decisions were obviously made by
judges, and since they are human, and that every decision made by a
human being is susceptible to bias, the judicial system is inevitably
fraught with biases.
The discussion of future risks focuses not just on the primarily ethical
consequences for human development and the concept of human
intelligence and the way it functions. There are also fears about new
forms of cybercrime, such as the hacking of pacemakers and other AI-
controlled implants.
Large, globally positioned IT companies in particular are interested in
operating as far as possible with uniform structures that have a global
or transnational reach. For these companies, regulations that are set
down in various national legal systems and accordingly differ from
one another constitute an impediment to the use of their business
models. As a result, they look for and exploit opportunities to thwart
or avoid such regulations.
Robot Law and Artificial Intelligence
, Lecture 1 - Introduction to the course
Singularity If a robot becomes smarter than a person
Challenges for the law Liability
o Who pays for the consequences?
Accountability
o Who has the responsibility?
o If a firm is held liable for a product, you can still be held
accountable for using it/purchasing it.
Purchasing Sex robots, if it would be known to have a
devastating effect on humanity
Massive unemployment
Diff erent kinds of law restricti ons: Banning something completely
o Atomic bomb
Requiring a license
o So that something can be monitored or only used by trained
people
Stimulating developments
o By supporting research you can shift the attention level and
obtain more information on specific topics
Liability
o Someone can be held accountable if a certain invention fails
Protection over weaker parties (consumers, users)
o This way big firms cannot dominate the world
o Antitrust law
International agreements
o By setting international agreements, one can prohibit certain
technologies over the entire globe in order to achieve
worldwide needs and goals.
For example to prohibit the creation of killer robots
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS AND The goal of AI applications must be to create value for society .
OPPORTUNITIES AI o AI is a double-edged sword since the same potential that can
be used to improve the world can end up turning against us in
a lethal way.
Prior to the use of AI, all judicial decisions were obviously made by
judges, and since they are human, and that every decision made by a
human being is susceptible to bias, the judicial system is inevitably
fraught with biases.
The discussion of future risks focuses not just on the primarily ethical
consequences for human development and the concept of human
intelligence and the way it functions. There are also fears about new
forms of cybercrime, such as the hacking of pacemakers and other AI-
controlled implants.
Large, globally positioned IT companies in particular are interested in
operating as far as possible with uniform structures that have a global
or transnational reach. For these companies, regulations that are set
down in various national legal systems and accordingly differ from
one another constitute an impediment to the use of their business
models. As a result, they look for and exploit opportunities to thwart
or avoid such regulations.
