Accountability and responsibility for AI-enabled conduct
Résumé
This chapter examines how it is possible to establish accountability and legal responsibility for the decisions of AI-enabled military systems, from the perspectives of individual criminal responsibility, civil liability, and state responsibility. It is argued that in all these areas, AI-enabled military systems capable of making autonomous decisions do raise novel concerns that current legal regimes cannot always adequately address. However, I contend that the solution lies not in the adaptation or amendments of responsibility regimes. The working of responsibility regimes depends on relevant primary norms. Short of international regulations for the use of such systems in the first place, adaptation of responsibility regimes will be insufficient, unplausible, or sometimes undesirable. The potential “accountability gap” should thus be seen as another reason why regulations on the development and use of such systems are in urgent need.