When the idea of self-driving cars first started becoming mainstream, I remember a lot of debate about liability. If an accident occurs, who would be at fault? I think a lot of those questions are still unanswered.
Fast forward and now we have software like ChatGPT. I assume they’ll only become more capable (and connected) over time.
Which makes it strange I haven’t really heard any similar discussion around liability. What happens when it makes mistakes or causes damage?
Maybe in people’s minds it doesn’t matter, because AI is either something that helps with homework questions, or something that’s taking over humanity. Reality is probably in between those two, with much more mundane mistakes or damages done.
What happens when the first ransomware is deployed by AI, on behalf of a user who just wanted tips on how to make more side income?
I mostly agree, with the exception of the last paragraph. The software world today is built on open source software that is distributed without guarantees and this is an amazing thing. If a liability like that is applied to AI, it would be easily generalized to any piece of software that might be used in malicious ways the author did not intend or predict. It would be akin to punishing a knife manufacturer for a stabbing.
It is ridiculously easy to write a genuinely well intentioned script that encrypts your files and a minor modification can turn that into a ransomware.