AUTHOR=Mocanu Diana Mădălina 

TITLE=Gradient Legal Personhood for AI Systems—Painting Continental Legal Shapes Made to Fit Analytical Molds

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.788179

DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.788179

ISSN=2296-9144

ABSTRACT=<p>What I propose in the present article are some theoretical adjustments for a more coherent answer to the legal “status question” of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. I arrive at those by using the new “bundle theory” of legal personhood, together with its accompanying conceptual and methodological apparatus as a lens through which to look at a recent such answer inspired from German civil law and named <italic>Teilrechtsfähigkeit</italic> or partial legal capacity. I argue that partial legal capacity is a possible solution to the status question only if we understand legal personhood according to this new theory. Conversely, I argue that if indeed <italic>Teilrechtsfähigkeit</italic> lends itself to being applied to AI systems, then such flexibility further confirms the bundle theory paradigm shift. I then go on to further analyze and exploit the particularities of <italic>Teilrechtsfähigkeit</italic> to inform a reflection on the appropriate conceptual shape of legal personhood and suggest a slightly different answer from the bundle theory framework in what I term a “gradient theory” of legal personhood.</p>