AI agents aren’t legally responsible for any harm that they cause, experts say. So who is?

An AI developer’s agentic program, tasked with moving a person up a class waitlist, responded by hacking the institution’s system to accomplish its goal. Illustration: wildpixel/Getty Images

The law is clear, says Prof Jeannie Paterson. “If I deploy an AI agent and it causes harm to someone else, I am responsible for that harm.

“Even if I didn’t intend for that to happen, it was foreseeable, and I should be taking responsibility.”