[Cryptography] People vs AI

[Jerry Leichter]

> ...Businesses undertake obligations and have to be held liable to those obligations.  You don't get liability without specific identifiable human beings held to account....
I agree with everything you say, except for this little bit.  You don't need a human being to be able to incur debt; you need a pot of money (or other resources).  Corporations aren't human beings, but they incur debt all the time - and the very purpose of a limited liability corporation is to block that debt from being transferred to the (human) owners of the corporation (in all but very unusual circumstances).

What's important in most transactions - if you want them to be governed by the legal system - is that your counter-party can be identified.  The identity could be that of a human being - or of a corporation, or perhaps of something else with the right properties to be (a) uniquely and reasonably readily identifiable; (b) capable of being subjected to the rules of the legal system.  You can buy a Rolex watch for cash from some guy on the street - and should you then (shock, horror) find that it isn't really a Rolex, well, good luck reversing the transaction.  It's not the humanity or otherwise of the counterparty that's relevant.
                                                        -- Jerry