The Future of AI: Should AI Be Recognised as a Juridical Person?

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_55How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; AI; Juridical Person; Civil Liability

Abstract

This article critically examines the question of whether artificial intelligence (hereinafter referred to as “AI”) should be recognised as a juridical person within modern legal systems. AI technologies, capable of autonomous decision-making and complex reasoning, increasingly perform tasks with significant legal and ethical implications. However, traditional liability frameworks, which attribute responsibility solely to human actors, are ill-equipped to address harm caused by autonomous AI systems. This gap raises profound questions about accountability, governance, and justice in the digital era. Using a doctrinal legal research methodology, the study analysed primary sources alongside secondary sources. The analysis revealed that the fiction and concession theory of juridical personality provides the most suitable foundation for granting AI limited legal personhood, as it allows the state to confer personality for functional and policy reasons. Drawing parallels with corporate personhood under Malaysia’s Companies Act 2016, the article argues that AI entities could, like corporations, bear rights and obligations independently of their developers or users. The article concludes by recommending a graduated, regulated framework for AI personhood, beginning with domain-specific applications and incorporating safeguards analogous to veil-piercing, to ensure accountability, prevent misuse, and align legal systems with emerging technological realities.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zainal Amin Ayub
AU  - Zuryati Mohamed Yusoff
AU  - Harlida Abdul Wahab
AU  - Mohamad Fateh Labanieh
AU  - Mohd Dino Khairri Shariffuddin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
TI  - The Future of AI: Should AI Be Recognised as a Juridical Person?
BT  - Proceedings of the UUM 13th International Legal Conference 2025 (UUMILC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 787
EP  - 797
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_55
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_55
ID  - Ayub2026
ER  -