AI Personhood

This project will create a structured series of events to bring together leading philosophers, legal scholars, computer scientists and neuroscientists to examine one of the most pressing questions of our time: What, if any, are the capacities AI systems must have to be persons under the law? What are the indicators for these capacities? Criteria for personhood may include consciousness, agency, autonomy, persistent identity and moral alignment, however defined and measured. The project will address related questions such as: is corporate personhood a legal precedent for natural AI personhood? What of liability and rights attribution, or fiduciary duties toward AI systems? What are the policy implications of granting or withholding legal standing? Models for this process are the Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, which brought technical experts from around the world to advise on a treaty to regulate plastic pollution, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Refugees and Stateless Persons, which developed the 1951 Refugee Convention. This project will be designed for a quick handoff to the United Nations or other official, international body, once the international community is ready. It is hoped that by starting this process now, time will be saved once the official process is convened. It will also serve to raise awareness of the need for an official, state-sanctioned process.