header-logo header-logo

06 August 2025
Issue: 8128 / Categories: Legal News , Artificial intelligence , Technology , Legal services
printer mail-detail

Artificial intelligence: more personality needed?

The Law Commission, which advises the government on reform, has floated the idea of giving artificial intelligence (AI) systems legal personality

The commissioners stop short of making any specific proposals for reform in their discussion paper, ‘Artificial intelligence and the law’, published last week. However, they note that ‘many of the legal issues raised by AI arise, partly, because AI does not have legal personality’. They conclude by considering ‘a potentially radical option for AI law reform: granting some form of legal personality to AI systems’. The commissioners highlight that, while AI is not yet advanced enough to warrant this option, it may become so ‘in the near future’.

Their paper raises a host of other AI conundrums for discussion: for example, the difficulty of establishing causation and criminal liability, and the impact on public accountability when AI is involved in local authority decision-making.

Chair of the Law Commission, Sir Peter Fraser said: ‘With AI’s potential benefits comes potential harm.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Clarke Willmott—Megan Bradbury

Clarke Willmott—Megan Bradbury

Corporate team welcomes paralegal in Southampton

Howard Kennedy—Paul Moran

Howard Kennedy—Paul Moran

London firm strengthens real estate team with partner appointment

Cripps—Radius Law

Cripps—Radius Law

Commercial and technology practice boosted by team hire

NEWS
Pathfinder courts—renamed ‘Child focused courts’—are to be rolled out nationally, following a successful pilot where backlogs halved and cases were resolved up to seven and a half months faster
The Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed a £385,000 costs order against a father, in a case that centred on what is required to meet the threshold of ‘reprehensible or unreasonable’ behaviour
Centuries-old burial laws would be overhauled, under Law Commission proposals to address the burgeoning problem of shortage of cemetery space
The government has committed an extra £32m to women’s charities and services tackling addiction, trauma, abuse and homelessness
The Financial Ombudsman is poised for major reform to return it to a simple, impartial dispute resolution service
back-to-top-scroll