Nuove tecnologie e diritto della responsabilità civile: sfide e normative

Nuove tecnologie e diritto della responsabilità civile

New technologies is a broad concept (11,5 billion of search results on Google) but it's also an open-ended concept that testimonies a dynamic development. The use of new technologies changes our economic reality, the way through which entrepreneurs do business. This is a new economic paradigm that relates to a new business model. We will focus on artificial intelligence, internet of things and autonomous cars.

Il diritto della responsabilità civile

What does the tort law deal with? This term refers to a social or economic activity that happens to be detrimental to patrimonial position or personal sphere of the society members (may bring some losses or harms) ** self-compensation as a rule It's a confusing concept because of 2 reasons:

• The term comes from a totally different jurisdiction: it's derived from Common Law
• It's a part of legal system that deal with some detrimental effects of any kind of economic or social activities. Tort law is a part of private law # (to public law) the tort law regards repair damages but impose the duties on private individual.

-> In what circumstances is the duty of granting compensation imposed on an individual? prerequisites of liability -> Why is it imposed? For the ratio legis that it's usually an ethical justification. -> What is to be compensated for? Loss or harm in a strict legal meaning These are the answer that a law maker has to have to deal with tort law regulations. Is the tort law is adequate to the reality of nowadays characterized by the dynamic of technologies? The times we are leaving, called Digital Revolution times because of the development of new technologies but what's is emblatic is that what happened is derived from industrial revolution. In this time, the tort law changes: some liabilities skills were introduced. Originally tort law was about fault liability but this changes significantly in this period because the reality changes significantly: more vehicles-> more danger but maybe the driver is not the right person to impose liability on. Another reason is that using such new items gives you some additional benefits, produces some money and so you have to be responsible of its loss.

Intelligenza Artificiale

A system that is either software-based or embedded in hardware devices, and that displays behaviour simulating intelligence by, inter alia, collecting, and processing data, analysing and interpreting its environment, and by taking action, with some degree of autonomy, to achieve specific goals. It's a software system of software + hardware (but sometimes there's not) It's based on algorithms, and it's characterized by:

1. Complex architecture
2. Self-learning ability: performing in

• Machine or deep learning
• Can collect data from the outside

1. Autonomy: behave or act in an autonomy way that can achieve some goals not predetermined by the designer. It can decide for itself-> danger Ex: ChatGPT: ability of self-learning base on big data that it can collect itself and to self defining itself: " Al, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans. It is a multidisciplinary field of computer science that aims to create systems and technologies capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks can include:

1. Learning: Al systems can learn from data and improve their performance over time. This is often done through techniques like machine learning, where algorithms are trained on large datasets to recognize patterns and make predictions.
2. Reasoning: Al can use logic and reasoning to make decisions and solve problems. This involves processing information, drawing conclusions, and making choices based on available data.
3. Problem Solving: Al systems are designed to tackle complex problems and find solutions, often through optimization techniques or by exploring different possibilities.
4. Perception: Al can be equipped with sensors and perception capabilities to understand and interpret the world, such as image and speech recognition.
5. Natural Language Processing (NLP): Al technologies can understand, generate, and interact with human language. This is used in applications like chatbots, translation services, and voice assistants.
6. Robotics: Al is often applied in robotics to enable machines to interact with the physical."

Internet delle Cose

It would be a net of things such as interconnected devices with sensors, cameras ecc. able to "communicate" with themselves and with people. Able to „decide“ on the basis of external data to regulate the devive functioning without human activity. Software (app) plus hardware (devices, sensors, cameras ... ) These devices can have the characteristics of AI but not necessarily.

Auto a guida autonoma

Represent the combination of IoT and AI Society of Automotive Engineers International (6 degrees - scale of autonomy; 1,2 - parking assist system, lane keeping assist) According to the Commission of EU, the 6th degree is to be achieved by 2030

Rischi e perdite della Rivoluzione Digitale

Among the risks of harms and losses, we can find:

• Global dimension of revolution - scale effect
• Features that may make NT risky from the perspective of legal protection of individuals What can go wrong?

1. New technology operation is based on data and it's possible to enface errors 3 types of risks connected to data:

• May appear at the stage of technology designing or production.
• Technologies software use data that the program absorb itself from the world out there and this can be defected causing problems
• All those Al items, devices, can work only providing that they are update on a regular base so it's possible that the software can change not being anymore what people want.

1. New technology is complex: ai, for example, is not only composed by software but also by hardware but something can go wrong at the stage of designing and producing and also at the stage of using it. Furthermore, more subjects are involved who potentially could be the reason of damage; The software and the hardware can be produced by 2 different subjects or maybe the data come from third parties. Proof of causality
2. Autonomy: why would it behave like this? Opacity
3. Data: third party influence or interference Example of new technologies causing damages:

• 3D-printed defective implant deteriorates the patient's condition
• A medical manual flawly translated by AI (GOOGLE TRANSLATOR) which was used to study by a student who became a doctor and performed a surgery according to the instructions contained in it and thus worsening patient's conditions
• Al robot-surgeon commits an error killing the patient
• Al software used to scan and interpret X-ray pictures. Omits an error- fails to find a tumour, which makes it impossible to start the therapy in time.
• Smart city case: Al controlled traffic lights cause a huge accident in which a lot of people get hurt and a lot of cars get destroyed
• A chatbot offending users
• Smart house case: Al controlled fridge "buys" food that contains peanuts that the owner of the house is allergic to leading to serious health condition of the owner who ate the food
• Flooding of the house due to incorrectly functioning smart home.
• GMO corn seeds blown by wind contaminate the neighbour's organic crop cultivated by the farmer who consequently loses the "organic farmer" certificate and as a result loses his clients
• Al driven car hits pedestrian or another car
• Al-driven lawn mower failed to stop on time and inured a neighbour's toddler hand which got trapped under the blades of the mower. New technology leads top market changes that trigger new challenges such as:
• Uber driver causes harm to a passenger
• Airbnb host do nolt keep the flat safe. The guest gets hurt b y the oven Could the platform be effectively sued to compensate the losses of a passenger/guest?

Risposte legali a danni e perdite

Legal responses to damage (loss) or harms

• When people get hurt ot people entities) get worse off a pecuniary sense, in a "pre-legal world" damnum sentit dominus (loss lies where it falls)
• Compensation for damage and loss: may be imposed by 2 different types of legal norms in private law: tort law and liability for breach of contract
• Private law imposes liability id damages
• Liability: legal relationship between the debtor and the creditor
• Remedy: damages
• Damages - payment, designed to compensate for the loss or make the non-patrimonial damage good Damage and harm (monetary and non-monetary loss) - private law defines these phenomenons
• Monetary loss: actuall loss (reduction in a person's assets) and lost profit (the lack of increase in those assets, which would have occurred without the tort)
• Non-monetary loss may be pain and inconvenience following from physical harm or from disappointment (impairment of the quality of life), and may be due to attacks on a person's personality, reputation or honour
• Liability - legal relationship (between the debtor, i.e. the tortfeasor and the creditor, the victim)
• The duty to compensate for losses may be imposed by two different types of legal norms in private law - tort law vs liability for breach of contract
• Tort law vs Contractual liability - primary and secondary obligation It happens when there is a contract (=an agreement between 2 parties that leads to duties and obligations). If this primary obligation are violated, it might lead to a loss and repairing this loss becomes an additional duty because it repairs an original one or it's added to it.

Il quadro della responsabilità civile

In contractually liability, liability is always triggered by the same factor while in tort law we find different factors. But the majority of legal systems provide other types of liabilities:

• Liability for one's own acts - liability imposed because of a wrongful (incorrect) behaviour of a person who caused damage Broad scope of application: fault-based liability models (providing compensation to the victim if the defendant is to blame for the former's damage) Qualunque fatto doloso o colposo, che cagiona ad altri un danno ingiusto, obbliga colui che ha commesso il fatto a risarcire il danno (article 2043 of the Italian Codice civile) Fault - blameworthiness of a given behaviour, misconduct (a conduct which is not in line of what was expected, is against the standard of care), subjective factors: age, mental state and other personal abilities Prima facie - great potential of applicability to Al-inflicted harms - there is alway a human being behind (producer, user ... )
• Vicarious liability - liability imposed because of a misconduct ofauxiliaries; liability for misconduct of children Enterprise (organisational) liability Principal (master) and servant (agent) relation; normally: employer and emloyee Principal's liability for losses caused by servant's acts that are wrongful Strict liability Scope of employment precondition (the act authorised by the master or an act that serves purposes of the master, realisation of interest of the master is a goal of servant's conduct)