What Robots Want: Autonomous Machines, Codes and New Frontiers of Legal Responsibility

This chapter examines the impact of robotics technology on legal systems and how a new generation of robo-traders, AI chauffeurs, artificial pop singers and autonomous lethal weapons affect individual’s knowledge, environments and perceptions of the world. Although lawyers deem robots under the current state of law as legally and morally without responsibility as these artificial agents lack a set of preconditions for attributing liability to a party within the realm of criminal law, such machines are reshaping notions of agency and human liability in civil (as opposed to criminal) law. We already have a number of artificial agents that send bids, accept offers, request quotes, negotiate deals and make contracts, so that such machines can be held liable for certain of their actions through new types of accountability, authentication systems and insurance models. At least in the civil law-field, “only robots shall pay” at times may be the right answer