Artificial Intelligence: A Study of Present Legal Status with Future Prospects

Abstract

When an alien entity is added to a river it agitates the whole river and a pattern of ripples are sent across the river. After some time, the river digests the entity and the flow again becomes normal. Presently Artificial Intelligence is that alien entity in case of human life. In 1950s this alien entity was dropped in the river of human life and from that time onwards it is continuously agitating different parts of human life till now. One aspect of human life which is affected by the AI is the legal one. Since the dawn of Artificial Intelligence hereinafter referred as AI, legal side has suffered many hardships in its working domain by the hands of AI because it is a novelty introduced into the equation. Introduction of something new into a stable equation means destabilization and that’s exactly what AI did to the legal systems. Now for balancing the same equation again, one of the most important factor to be considered is the legal status of AI and the same is important because, with the passage of time, AI is becoming autonomous and self-sufficient. The core issue addressed by this research work is the legal status of AI. The methodology adopted for the research work is descriptive, analytical, and to a certain extent, comparative in nature. The scope of the research mainly consists of jurisprudential side of law, the present position of the issue in different legal systems is also dealt with and mostly a dialectic method of argumentation is adopted throughout the work. At the very end of the research work, it is suggested that the AI must be awarded with some kind of legal personality. For now, bestowing them with dependent legal personality can solve many of our problems but in future, once the AI becomes fully autonomous it will be needed to revisit the same question again and this time answer it differently.