Drawing the line on AI liability

Who should be held liable when an artificial intelligence model is used in a way that causes harm? The question is being debated both in classrooms and courtrooms across the United States. The answer has enormous implications for US technology companies that offer some of the world's leading AI systems. And it is equally relevant for Chinese companies offering similar models.

At the dawn of the internet age, the US Congress intervened to limit the liability of online platforms for their users' speech. In the AI era, by contrast, governments are debating an opposite approach: increasing rather than reducing the responsibility of technology companies.

The key question is who bears the responsibility when an AI system goes wrong. We might all agree that a driver who puts a car into self-driving mode remains responsible for an accident. But what about the company that made the self-driving system? Should it be liable even when the driver used it improperly? If an airline's customer service chatbot mistakenly reports a fare policy that never existed, must the airline be required to honor it? A Canadian court recently concluded that it should. When a chatbot's conversation with a teenager ends in tragedy, as families now allege in US courts, is the company that built the model liable?