Whether it’s driving a car or summarizing a doctor’s appointment, autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) systems can make decisions that cause real harm, rapidly changing the landscape of liability.
Attorneys and AI developers say U.S. laws must keep up with the technology as debate persists over who’s responsible when things go wrong.
Lawmakers are looking to close the accountability gap by shifting burdens and expanding who can be held accountable when autonomous AI systems fail. Unlike non-autonomous AI systems, autonomous models are more likely to be unpredictable.
In the United States, a legal patchwork is slowly forming. In 2024, Colorado passed a law, Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence, requiring those deploying “high-risk” AI systems to protect consumers from “reasonably foreseeable risks” starting Feb. 1, 2026….