REVISITING CORPORATE LEGAL PERSONHOOD IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Abstract

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is and has been shaking traditional legal frameworks, necessitating a fresh look at the concept of corporate legal personhood. As AI-driven entities start to play a bigger role in complex decision-making within corporations, we are faced with important questions regarding accountability, liability, and whether AI systems should be seen as ‘legal persons.’ The authors critically revisit the doctrine of corporate legal personhood in light of the increasing integration of artificial intelligence into corporate operations. The objective is to assess if the current legal understanding of corporate personhood is adequate to address the rise of AI-driven decision-making and whether it needs to be updated to recognize the operational independence of intelligent systems. The authors argued that the traditional view of corporate legal personhood does not adequately address the challenges posed by AI-driven- decision making. The paper therefore maintained that as corporations increasingly delegate key decision-making roles to algorithms, stakeholders must strive to grapple with who represents the corporation, ascertain liability as well as rights and interests distributed within the corporate framework. The authors therefore concluded with a call for a more refined and nuanced understanding of corporate legal personhood, which would involve creating a liability, governance and regulatory framework that goes beyond the current model.