Robots

More and more often legal scholars notice that developments in robotics are becoming increasingly relevant from a legal point of view. This chapter critically assesses the current debate in the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI)-based robotics, whose scope should be seen as part of a wider debate that concerns AI. Indeed, what interests legal scholars are those robots that are able to act autonomously and intelligently, that is, robots embedded with AI. The chapter looks at such robots from the twofold perspective: on the one hand, robot as a product (and therefore the chapter refers to consumer protection) and, on the other hand, robot as entity (and therefore it addresses robot rights). The chapter also includes a brief overview of some of the initiatives to regulate AI and robotics interpreting the nuances so as to extract some ideas on national priorities in this regard.