Adam Jones comments on The AI regulator’s toolbox: A list of concrete AI governance practices

Adam Jones 3 Sep 2024 16:40 UTC
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A comment provided to me by a reader, highlighting 3rd party liability and insurance as interventions too (lightly edited):
Hi! I liked your AI regulator’s toolbox post – very useful to have a comprehensive list like this! I’m not sure exactly what heading it should go under, but I suggest considering adding proposals to greatly increase 3rd party liability (and or require carrying insurance). A nice intro is here:
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/tort-law-and-frontier-ai-governance
Some are explicitly proposing strict liability for catastrophic risks. Gabe Weil has proposal, summarized here: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5e7TrmH7mBwqpZ6ek/tort-law-can-play-an-important-role-in-mitigating-ai-risk
There are also workshop papers on insurance here:
https://www.genlaw.org/2024-icml-papers#liability-and-insurance-for-catastrophic-losses-the-nuclear-power-precedent-and-lessons-for-ai
https://www.genlaw.org/2024-icml-papers#insuring-uninsurable-risks-from-ai-government-as-insurer-of-last-resort
NB: when implemented correctly (i.e. when premiums are accurately risk-priced), insurance premiums are mechanically similar to Pigouvian taxes, internalizing negative externalities. So maybe this goes under the “Other taxes” heading? But that also seems odd. Like taxes, these are certainly incentive alignment strategies (rather than command and control) – maybe that’s a better heading? Just spitballing :)