AI and Legal Personhood: An African Perspective

AI in Africa. Preliminary Notes on Design and Adoption

“…The study wanted to find out whether there are compelling moral and legal reasons to grant some AI systems a degree of legal personhood. Although the findings observed that discussions in this area are not the main argument of African philosophical thought, the paper argues that there are moral reasons and strong legal rationales to grant some forms of legal liability to AI systems (Naidoo, 2022). This is because, within the communitarian framework, African philosophical thought may allow for some AI systems to be both subjects and objects of relationships.…”

“…Also, the system should hypothetically assume some level of personhood which makes it answerable and share in the liability and gains that may arise during deployment and usage. This viewpoint is justified by previous studies (Naidoo, 2022) which examined the legal personhood of AI systems. The study wanted to find out whether there are compelling moral and legal reasons to grant some AI systems a degree of legal personhood.…”

“…This is because, within the communitarian framework, African philosophical thought may allow for some AI systems to be both subjects and objects of relationships. Moreover, there are other important legal values for endowing some AI systems with legal personhood and they include legal efficiency, market efficiency, legal certainty, and accountability (Naidoo, 2022). Additionally, the result of research by Langat, Mwakio, and Ayuku (2020) which aimed to review the ethics of AI considering the issues that have been outlined by others in the light of communitarian ethics as seen in Africa, demonstrates that a thinking machine such as an AI system has some level of impact on the society and how individuals would relate with each other.…”