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AI agents aren’t legally responsible for any harm that they cause, experts say. So who is?
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
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"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."
In case you were wondering if it wasn't the bleeding obvious.
A human did this a human should be held responsible. "If you throw a ball in the air are you not responsible for where it lands"
Let's say that ball is a hand grenade. Who gave it to you? It can't be JUST the user if it's that dangerous. Finally parents are being held to account if a kid uses a firearm inappropriately. The same should apply to companies who build AI, if it's used to hack someone or make CSAM.
Only if they host the model, if it's a self hosted open source model, the entity hosting the model should be held accountable
Also to keep your analogy going, if I tell you how to make a grenade. You then go out to buy supplies, make the grenade and blow up your neighbour, should I be held accountable for sharing knowledgea? Because I'm yet to hear about anyone getting into trouble for distributing the anarchist's cookbook
First paragraph: agreed.
Second paragraph: that's a good question and I really don't know how to answer that. I guess it would depend on whether or not you knew what I planned to do with it. Because there are laws about that. Do I plan to set it off in my empty field? Or do you know for sure it's going through a neighbors window? Because if you knew, then told me then you would be in trouble, for accessory at least.
t>he entity hosting the model should be held accountable
Not necessarily. If I buy a machine from a vendor, fail to test it to confirm that it's safe to use in the way I intend to use it, and one of my employees gets maimed or killed by it, I'm liable, even though some liability might also be assignable to the manufacturer.