Exclusive: Delaware proposes testing the AIC, a new legal entity for agents in a regulatory sandbox

John Nay is founder and chief executive of Norm Ai and a co-author of “Artificial Intelligence and Interspecific Law,” published in Science in 2023. Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez is the Secretary of State of Delaware.

In a 2023 essay published in Science, one of us argued that nothing in the law of several states clearly prevents an AI agent from operating a company with no human at the helm. It then asked a plain question: when autonomous software begins to contract, pay suppliers, and transact on its own, what should we do?

Three years later, with AI far more capable, the question is no longer hypothetical. Fortunately, Delaware is positioned to lead the way. 

The answer is not to try to prohibit the activity; any effort to do so is just as unlikely to succeed as the technology and its enablers are likely to push the boundaries of the law.

The answer is to wrap AI in legal form. Give an autonomous system a recognizable legal identity and you make it legible to law. You create a defined target to which responsibility and damages can attach. You make the agent’s conduct visible, traceable, and accountable.

The modern corporation, the series LLC, and the........

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