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Decentralized Autonomous Organization and AI Legal Personhood

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This article argues that since a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) can be granted legal personhood as a DAO LLC, the DAO LLC may be a precursor to granting legal personhood to an artificial intelligence (AI). The article first explores the concept of DAO and the legal personhood status of a DAO when it is registered as a DAO LLC. Under the DAO LLC laws of Wyoming, Tennessee, and Utah, a DAO is statutorily defined as a legal person or attains legal personhood by implication. As AI is increasingly used in DAOs, the article explores the possibility of extending the legal personhood status of a DAO to an AI. Irrespective of the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), the type of autonomous AI the article envisions is one that fully controls a DAO, called an AI DAO. While an AI DAO has yet to be developed, the article explores technological developments at the convergence of AI and DAO that could lead to an AI DAO. The article discusses three arguments that could extend AI legal personhood from DAOs to an AI: (a) interpreting the statutory definition of a legal person to include an AI DAO, (b) treating the DAO as an indistinguishable legal entity as the AI that fully controls it, and (c) the AI’s exercise of the rights and duties of the DAO as creating legal personhood.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOxford intersections
Subtitle of host publicationAI in society
EditorsPhilipp Hacker
PublisherOxford University Press
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Mar 2025

Publication series

NameOxford Intersections: AI in Society

Keywords

  • NLA

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