Criminal Liability and Artificial Intelligence: Theoretical and Applied Aspects

Abstract

The humanity is now at the threshold of a new era when a widening use of artificial intelligence (AI) will start a new industrial revolution. Its use inevitably leads to the problem of ethical choice, it gives rise to new legal issues that require urgent actions. The authors analyze the criminal law assessment of the actions of AI. Primarily, the still open issue of liability for the actions of AI that is capable of self-learning and makes a decision to act / not to act, which is qualified as a crime. As a result, there is a necessity to form a system of criminal law measures of counteracting crimes committed with the use of AI. It is shown that the application of AI could lead to four scenarios requiring criminal law regulation. It is stressed that there is a need for a clear, strict and effective definition of the ethical boundaries in the design, development, production, use and modification of AI. The authors argue that it should be recognized as a source of high risk. They specifically state that although the Criminal Code of the Russian Fe­deration contains norms that determine liability for cybercrimes, it does not eliminate the possibility of prosecution for infringements committed with the use of AI under the general norms of punishment for various crimes. The authors also consider it possible to establish a system to standardize and certify the activities of designing AI and putting it into operation. Meanwhile, an autonomous AI that is capable of self-learning is considerably different from other phenomena and objects, and the situation with the liability of AI which independently decides to undertake an action qualified as a crime is much more complicated. The authors analyze the resolution of the European Parliament on the possibility of granting AI legal status and discuss its key principles and meaning. They pay special attention to the issue of recognizing AI as a legal personality. It is suggested that a legal fiction should be used as a technique, when a special legal personality of AI can be perceived as an unusual legal situation that is different from reality. It is believed that such a solution can eliminate a number of existing legal limitations which prevent active involvement of AI into the legal space.

Criminal Liability of the Artificial Intelligence

“…With regard to the above, it is necessary to make a clarification: we use the term AI it would be correct to call a Strong AI. The separation in this case is fundamental, since all other AI, including electronic systems, with which a person comes into contact every day, are weak [3]. The reason for this is that they have only the ability to perform the only function for which they were created, and self-education, which entails an increase in knowledge and, accordingly, the expansion of functionality, is unusual for them.…”

“…In terms of the legal consolidation in the regulatory system of the Russian Federation, as N. Kulikov correctly points out, the terms potentially capable of having relation to AI -" robot "and" robotics " appear only in a few legislative acts of far from paramount importance [3], with the exception of several state program-strategic legal acts 13 .In the context of the above, perfectly logical statement I. R. Begishev that the resolution of the question of the legal fixing of the concept of AI should be to determine how the current legislation considers the possibility of the existence of such systems and can be used to organize relationships in terms of their use.…”

“…We believe that it is impossible to agree with anthropocentric positions of realization of criminal responsibility, because as mentioned above, due to the essential properties of AI, they contradict both the principle of guilt and justice. We believe that it is unacceptable to postpone legislative changes until the actual tendentiousness of committing AI crimes appears, since in this case criminalization will be untimely, accordingly, it is necessary to develop legal changes in the shortest possible time [3].…”

“…Among the areas that are characterized by a high level, the field of digital technology occupies one of the leading places. And there is one of the industries carrying the greatest criminological risks, the activity on creation, introduction and use of AI acts [2,3]. As rightly noted by scientists, the pace of development of systems and devices with AI will cause the need for a total revision of all branches of law [3,4].…”

“…And there is one of the industries carrying the greatest criminological risks, the activity on creation, introduction and use of AI acts [2,3]. As rightly noted by scientists, the pace of development of systems and devices with AI will cause the need for a total revision of all branches of law [3,4]. Of course, the introduction of AI in human activities is extremely promising, because the amount of data accumulated and processed by it, clearly exceeds the existing systems today, involving human participation [5,6].…”