Will and Responsibility

This book explores the authors' legal thinking on artificial intelligence (AI), a topic of burgeoning interest in the technology sector and among the general public. As part of the Human Intelligence book series, it primarily addresses the legislative and philosophical challenges posed by AI technology. A key philosophical concern discussed is the implications of AI surpassing human intelligence in certain domains, particularly the definition of rights and responsibilities for robots. Without clear resolutions to these issues, the deployment of AI technology may face significant hurdles. The book covers various aspects, including the legal recognition of robots as rights-holders, strategies for implementing these rights, assigning responsibilities to robots, intellectual property rights for robotic inventions, personality rights for companion robots, and an evaluation of the pros and cons of a binary legal system.

Jun Gu is a professor at School of Social Sciences, Shanghai University, China, an independent planner, and a freelance writer. Prof. Gu graduated from East China Normal University, China, in 1989. He has been following the social transformation and public governance in contemporary China for a long time, focusing on the study of social science and technology and its application in social governance. He has served as an advisory expert for decision-making of the Chinese government at all levels and special commentator of a number of Chinese media. Prof. Gu planned and presided over a series of courses on Major Country Strategies, authored books “State Operation and Relief for the People - China's Solution to the Mystery of China”, and edited “Major Country Strategies - the Road to the World” and “the Great Craftsman on the Road to Innovation”. He is fond of wisdom research, exploring the thinking methods and solutions of different culture to basic human problems, and the contemporary applications of traditional wisdom. He published monographs including “Personality· Ethical Interaction· Community: the Wisdom between Human Beings”, “Jewish Wisdom: Human Wisdom that Created Miracles”, “the Resourceful Structure of Traditional Chinese Merchants”, “Community Mediation and Social Stability”, “Flow and Order”, “Vitality and Order”, and “Harmonious society and public governance - a collection of Jun Gu's political comments”.

Chunming Xu is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and part-time lawyer. He holds a Ph.D. in Management, an LL.M. degree in Law, and a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. He used to be the Vice Dean of the Law School and the Dean of the Intellectual Property School at Shanghai University, and currently serves as a professor at the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property at Tongji University, where he is also the director of the National Intellectual Property Training (Shanghai) Base. Additionally, he is a senior consultant and practicing lawyer at Deheng Law Office in Shanghai. Recognized as one of the first national leading talents in intellectual property, Prof. Xu is an expert in the National Intellectual Property Expert Database and serves as a specially invited consultant to the Shanghai Higher People's Court and an expert for the Ministry of Commerce's Center for Overseas Intellectual Property Rights Protection Assistance. He is an executive council member of the China Intellectual Property Law Association, the China Society of Science and Technology Law, the Vice President of the Intellectual Property Law Association of the Shanghai Law Society, and the Vice President of the Free Trade Zone Rule of Law Research Association of the Shanghai Law Society.

The translator of the book, Lujie Zheng, is a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages at Fujian Jiangxia University. She obtained her master’s degree in Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching from the University of Southampton, UK, in 2013 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She presided over 1 social science youth project, 1 research project for middle-aged and young teachers, and 1 top-tier virtual simulation course in Fujian Province, China and participated in multiple research projects at the Ministry of Education and provincial level. Lujie Zheng published 6 research articles. Her main direction of studying includes corpus linguistics, translation and English language teaching.