Viewpoints
Opinion

Why States Are Right to Reject AI Legal Personhood

When AI causes harm, there must be a human who answers for it. That principle is not a constraint on technology but the foundation of a just society.
Why States Are Right to Reject AI Legal Personhood
Alex Knight/Pexels
|Updated:
0:00
Commentary
A quiet but consequential legal movement is gathering momentum. Idaho and Utah have enacted statutes declaring that artificial intelligence systems are not legal persons. Ohio’s House Bill 469 proposes to declare that AI systems are “nonsentient entities” and bars them from acquiring any form of legal personhood. Similar bills are advancing in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Missouri, South Carolina, and Washington. The legislatures driving this movement are not technophobes. They are drawing a necessary line that philosophy, law, and common sense all demand.