Law, AI and robotics: France country report (SIENNA project)

This report reviews the state of the law and current legal responses to technological developments in AI and robotics. It also explores how specific questions and issues are addressed in France: the issue of algorithmic bias, intellectual property of works created by AI, the creation of a specific legal status for robots and, finally, safety and civil liability issues for damages caused by robots.

Developments in AI and robotics challenge the existing legal framework, pose new questions, and create new issues. More profoundly, they challenge a fundamental distinction in French law, the one between the subject of law (as a physical or a legal person) and the object of law. The question related to the legal status of autonomous systems is therefore key in the current debate in France on the legal regulation of AI and robotics. This has, in turn, repercussions on the way intellectual property of AI is regulated as well as on safety and civil liability issues.

At the moment, highly sophisticated automated systems (so called “smart” systems) are not given a specific legal status. Only a few legal experts support the creation of a legal personality for such systems. The majority of French experts today believe that the summa divisio of French law between the subject of right and the object of right is not to be currently challenged.