The Problem of Applying Criminal Liability Provisions to Artificial Intelligence Crimes

Abstract

In recent years, the world has witnessed rapid development in artificial intelligence technologies, which has contributed to significant transformations in various areas of life, including economic, medical, security, and judicial fields. The deployment of these technologies has led to improved efficiency, accelerated accomplishment, and enhanced quality of services; however, this technological development has also generated new legal challenges, particularly in the criminal domain, due to the potential misuse of artificial intelligence systems or their going beyond human control, and the actions of a criminal nature that may result. The importance of this research lies in addressing one of the contemporary legal issues associated with the growing use of artificial intelligence, namely the issue of criminal liability arising from criminal acts associated with these systems. It also seeks to evaluate the extent to which traditional rules of criminal liability are suitable in confronting the emerging crimes that may arise from the use or operation of intelligent systems capable of learning and making decisions in a semi-independent manner. The research problem revolves around the extent to which traditional criminal liability rules can accommodate crimes associated with artificial intelligence applications, given that these rules are based on the assumption that the criminal act is committed by a natural person endowed with will and awareness. This raises important questions regarding the identification of the party responsible for criminal liability for harmful acts resulting from these systems, whether it is the user, the programmer, or the developing company, or the possibility of conceiving independent legal responsibility for the artificial intelligence itself. The research relied on a descriptive-analytical approach through studying the concept of artificial intelligence and its characteristics, analyzing the traditional rules of criminal liability, in addition to reviewing jurisprudential opinions and some relevant comparative legal trends. The research concluded with several findings, the most important of which is that traditional rules of criminal liability may not be sufficient to address crimes associated with artificial intelligence, due to the specificity of these systems and their technical capabilities and relative autonomy in decision-making. It also revealed the existence of legal challenges related to determining criminal liability for parties involved in the development and operation of these technologies.