Want AI agents to stop going rogue? Make executives personally liable.

“If such an animal escapes and does damage, the owner is liable simply on proof that he kept it,” so wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in his 19th-century legal treatise “The Common Law.” Holmes cites the ancient principle that simply keeping “a tiger or bear or other animal of a species commonly known to be ferocious” can make a person individually responsible for the harm it causes regardless of care or negligence. 

In other words, the owner of such an animal might build a strong cage, inspect it every day and take every reasonable precaution, but if the animal escapes and causes injury, damage or death, the owner is still liable. In legal terms, this is referred to as “strict liability.” 

As society considers how to prevent rogue AI agents from shutting down power grids or triggering war, this idea could make the real difference.   

On one side of the AI safety debate, Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia, argues that existing corporate and product liability laws should be sufficient to deter companies from releasing harmful products. “If your product is not ready to ship, don’t ship the product,” said Huang in a recent interview. 

Product liability lawsuits, however, are lodged against the firm; not executives, and corporate directors and officers are often indemnified against personal loss through........

© The Hill