posted in Technology
AI agents aren’t legally responsible for any harm that they cause, experts say. So who is?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/13/ai-agents-arent-legally-responsible-for-any-harm-that-they-cause-experts-say-so-who-is
You rolled a bowling ball down a hill. It struck a few cars on the way and went through a house and killed their pet. Guess who would be held responsible? You or the bowling ball manufacturer?
What if the bowling ball was really shiny and worth $100B? Should it make a difference?
What if you bowl your ball normally down the lane and of its own initiative it goes and hacks a website?
In that case, society’s to blame.
Really? I’m inclined to blame that on the manufacturer. If ‘AI’ guardrails fail that spectacularly, it’s on the provider. I fail to see any way to blame society, other than perhaps not voting in more sanity, but that’s pretty indirect.
As the person who deployed the agent, you are responsible for what it does on your behalf. You stand to gain from its actions, you also stand to lose from its bad behavior.
Of course, if the company that provided you the agent knowingly misrepresented the product, you can seek damages for what the agent did - but that’s up to you (and good luck getting damages from trillion-dollar tech companies and their armies of lawyers).