Study to support the Commission's impact assessment on liability for artificial intelligence : executive summary

The overarching goal of the assignment is to assist the Commission in collecting evidence a) on how the present and probable future challenges of AI to the national civil liability frameworks and possible adaptations at national level affect businesses active in the EU; b) on the impact of possible regulatory solutions that could be introduced at EU level. More specifically, the study looks into the following dimensions: It provides an economic analysis of the market for AI applications capable of causing damage. This analysis aims to outline the economic importance of this market in the coming 10 years, with a particular focus on the role of SMEs; It assesses whether and to what extent, under the current liability framework, victims of damage caused by AI applications would be in a comparatively more difficult situation than victims of damage caused by non-AI devices when trying to obtain compensation for their loss; It assesses whether the challenges raised by AI for the national civil liability frameworks are likely to slow down the uptake of AI in the EU. In particular, the study investigates the impact of: - Legal uncertainty: whether and to what extent businesses are uncertain about the application of current liability rules to their operations with AI, and whether the impact of legal uncertainty can hamper investments in AI; Future legal fragmentation: if Member States individually adjust their - already fragmented - liability laws to the challenges posed by AI, whether this would reduce the effectiveness of the internal market for AI applications and services. It assesses whether and to what extent harmonising certain aspects of national civil liability via EU legislation would reduce these problems and facilitate the overall uptake of AI technology by EU companies. The study performs a cost-benefit analysis of four preliminary regulatory approaches, which do however not reflect confirmed policy choices of the European Commission.