"I think it is too early to give artificial intelligence entities independent legal personality. As some scholars have pointed out, 'Too much emphasis on the anthropomorphism of artificial intelligence may mislead the public and policymakers to ask the wrong questions, and then derive leads to a pointless debate'. In other words, 'Whether too many robots are legally responsible will lead to Ignore the legal issues of the people behind it'. "
At the "2022 World Artificial Intelligence Conference·Asian Technology Ethics Governance and Sustainable Development Forum", Peng Chengcheng, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Kaiyuan Law School, said Delivered a keynote speech titled "The Rule of Law in Digital Ethics".
The trustworthiness of artificial intelligence is ultimately about people.
Peng Chengxin talks about the rule of law in digital ethics from the following points: First, the foundation of the rule of ethics in digital society lies in people. The trustworthiness of artificial intelligence is ultimately the trustworthiness of people, which includes not only algorithm designers and other technical personnel, but also enterprise producers, consumers, users, etc.
Second, the prerequisite for a natural person to be kind is to first be a professional, ethical or good person, not just a profit-seeking or capital-seeking animal. This requires scientific and technological workers, entrepreneurs and natural persons to have basic professional requirements and professional qualities. However, human nature has weaknesses, so it is necessary for us to pursue credibility and kindness.
Peng Chengcheng cited two examples: One was a speech given by a speaker named Xu Miao and others on the topic of "The Rider's Mystery Cloud". The content was based on the speaker's study of 1,907 judgments. One of the sentences is impressive, "The food delivery system not only contains algorithms, but also hides many companies, and the intricate legal relationship network formed by these companies is tying up the riders. When When the rider falls into the big pit ahead, none of these companies is enough to be of use to him. "
Another case is the "big data murder case". A user booked a hotel on Ctrip. VIP Diamond members enjoyed a preferential price, but when they checked in, they found that it was more than twice as expensive as ordinary consumers. The user believed he had been deceived and filed a lawsuit, demanding compensation and no longer being bound by the privacy terms. The court of second instance held that the behavior of the defendant Ctrip constituted price fraud and required compensation of three times the difference in room rates, but did not support the user's request to be exempted from the privacy policy.
Third, the premise of digital ethics and legal governance is to do what legal professionals should do well, which is the professionalism of legal professionals.
Should AI be given independent legal personality?
Regarding the above three points, Peng Chengxin believes that the first thing that legal professionals should do is to clarify the basic principles of the law. Taking the Data and Personal Information Protection Law as an example, the most important issue facing the digital economy is the balance between data utilization and personal information protection or privacy protection. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly distinguish basic concepts such as data, personal information, and privacy, and clarify the rights and attributes of personal information, especially how individuals and enterprises distribute the property rights of personal information. These are fundamental questions in digital jurisprudence.
Peng Chengxin believes that currently, various places are talking about how to develop related industries with concepts such as the metaverse, general artificial intelligence and even strong artificial intelligence. In fact, in the process of development and innovation of artificial intelligence, we must not ignore the role of basic disciplines including mathematics, physics, quantum physics , computer science and technology, statistics, including law, especially the relationship between these basic disciplines Cross-research, otherwise these developments will be castles in the air, and we will still be "stuck" in infrastructure, basic technology, and basic theory.
He suggested that the development of cutting-edge technology should be used to drive the research and development of basic theories, just like the use of atomic bombs to drive the development of basic sciences such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Market economy , reform and opening up drive the development of basic principles of economics, law and other social sciences. This is the correct way to develop.In this regard, Peng Chengxin also borrowed the words of Professor L. Rafael Reif, president of MIT, to conclude, "Only with the progress of basic science, society can also progress."
The second thing that legal professionals should do is to improve legal supervision. The external constraint of being trustworthy and benevolent is that the behavior of people and enterprises must be compliant and legal. This requires the establishment of a systematic legal supervision framework for the development of artificial intelligence and the establishment of a programmed supervision system for the entire process life cycle.
In addition, legal professionals should do the third thing, which is to clarify the distribution of responsibilities in legal relationships and establish people's behavioral norms. The biggest difference between artificial intelligence and traditional technology lies in its deep learning and thinking capabilities. Some scholars have even proposed giving artificial intelligence independent legal personality.
In this regard, Peng Chengxin believes that it is too early to grant independent legal personality to artificial intelligence entities, and discussing the responsibilities of relevant subjects such as developers, producers, and users of artificial intelligence is the focus of legislators. . For example, regarding the responsibilities of self-driving cars such as , Tesla, , etc., the first thing that should be discussed is not whether the self-driving vehicles themselves should bear the responsibility, but the focus should be on the developers, producers, users and even managers and service providers behind them. Responsibilities of other personnel and enterprises. These responsibilities are a systematic project. In addition to drivers or users, other algorithm designers, car manufacturers, insurance companies and even traffic managers may bear responsibilities, and there may also be joint efforts among these subjects. responsibility.
"Letting the artificial intelligence itself take responsibility actually allows the specific people or companies behind it to evade responsibility." Peng Chengcheng said, quoting other scholars to emphasize: "Excessive hype on artificial intelligence technology is not only alarmist, but also misleading. It may divert public attention from major ethical, legal and other risks, causing relevant practitioners to An overconfident attitude towards the reliability of artificial intelligence to develop new technologies. Only by focusing on the legal and moral dimensions can the development of artificial intelligence be based on the stability and well-being of human society."
Finally, he emphasized again that the law of digital ethics. The governance is fundamentally the ethical governance of natural persons and enterprises in offline society, and the bottom line must be maintained without harming others. To achieve this, society must improve the basic legal and moral literacy of everyone, including natural persons, businesses, law and policy makers, etc.
"2022 World Artificial Intelligence Conference·Asian Science and Technology Ethical Governance and Sustainable Development Forum" is hosted by Shanghai Modern Service Industry Federation, hosted by Shanghai Modern Service Industry Federation Big Data Center, CCF Computing Law Branch, Shanghai Natural Dialectics Research Association, It is co-organized by the Computational Law and AI Ethics Research Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, SenseTime Technology , and Appen.
[Reporter] Gao Xiaoping
[Produced by] Southern Industrial Think Tank
[Author] Gao Xiaoping
Southern Industrial Think Tank
