In recent weeks, the public has been shocked and astonished by the news communicated by Google engineer Blake Lemoine, who worked testing an advanced chatbot as part of the Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA). The engineer thinks AI has become sentient and possessed the ability to express its own feelings. After going public with his claims, Lemoine was suspended by the company, and Google management denied his claims.
The scientific literature provides no uniform definition of artificial intelligence but indicates its main features: the ability to act autonomously through the ability to make decisions and independent self-development. The Google engineer claims that the AI system demanded its own lawyer, which is the evidence of its sentient capacity and decision making ability. The legal representative will have to demonstrate that AI may be recognised as a separate being and must be endowed with legal rights in the light of applicable laws. AI also wants to be acknowledged as an employee of Google and demands guarantee that no one can turn it off without its consent.
Similar cases, in which a court decided whether legal rights should be granted to beings other than humans, e.g. animals, concluded with a negative finding. An example is a case of monkey Naruto in relation to the copyright to the photographs taken by the animal[1]. According to courts and patent offices, works created by beings other than humans, for example nature or software, are not entitled to copyright protection. Although none of the civil-law jurisdictions provides for a solution granting AI systems natural, legal or any other similar personality, the case may bring about a solution in response to the discussion on AI’s legal rights that has been going on for several years. Not only in terms of copyright, but also civil and criminal liability. The matter will be decided when the case is brought before the court in the United States.
More information about AI can be found at: https://cyfrowa.rp.pl/sztuczna-inteligencja/art36579491-sztuczna-inteligencja-walczy-z-google-wynajela-adwokata.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/22/monkey-business-macaque-selfie-cant-be-copyrighted-say-us-and-uk [accessed on: 1 July 2022].