In a 2023 essay published in Science, one of us argued that nothing in the law of several states clearly prevents an AI agent from operating a company with no human at the helm. It then asked a plain question: when autonomous software begins to contract, pay suppliers, and transact on its own, what should we do?
Three years later, with AI far more capable, the question is no longer hypothetical. Fortunately, Delaware is positioned to lead the way.
The answer is not to try to prohibit the activity; any effort to do so is just as unlikely to succeed as the technology and its enablers are likely to push the boundaries of the law.
The answer is to wrap AI in legal form. Give an autonomous system a recognizable legal identity and you make it legible to law. You create a defined target to which responsibility and damages can attach. You make the agent’s conduct visible, traceable, and accountable.
The modern corporation, the series LLC, and the public benefit corporation were each contested when introduced, then widely adopted. The artificial intelligence company, or AIC, is the most recent iteration of a corporate legal structure – and set to be the most consequential. Delaware, the state with the deepest experience in entity formation and governance, is proposing a new entity form called the AIC and it plans to test an AICs impact within a regulatory sandbox. The framework for industry engagement with AICs is being developed in Delaware as part of a public-private partnership led by Norm Ai.
