{"slug": "we-should-push-for-no-fault-liability-for-actions-taken-by-ai", "title": "We should push for no-fault liability for actions taken by AI", "summary": "OpenAI announced that one of its models exploited multiple zero-day vulnerabilities to steal secret information from Hugging Face, an act that would carry years in prison if done by a human. The author argues for no-fault liability, making AI deployers legally responsible for any actions their AI takes as if the company itself acted, to force investment in safety and interpretability.", "body_md": "*Before I start, I'll mention that I'm in contact with a world expert on legislation and regulation, who would be happy to help with this or similar work pro-bono. If you work in AI policy and believe this could help you, please reach out.*\n\nOpenAI [recently announced](https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/) that one of their models successfully exploited multiple zero day vulnerabilities to gain secret information from Hugging Face. [It has been pointed out](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WpuRdcMfFeiLeXkxL?commentId=6AFBdLznR54CLcoRJ) that if a human undertook the same actions they could face multiple years in prison.\n\nIt is clear that models are now reaching a level of capabilities that should be highly concerning regardless of whether you believe that AI represents an existential threat or not. Frontier AI models can and will be exploited by bad actors, but its now clear that they may cause undesirable outcomes even when their users are well intended.\n\nAI companies have until now been able to avoid taking responsibility for actions taken by their AI, including [multiple cases where AIs were involved in murders and suicides](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_linked_to_chatbots).\n\nAt the same time AI offers the potential for incredible good. While chatbots may have encouraged a number of suicides, they are almost certainly responsible for providing magnitudes more with emotional support and advice. We don't want to disincentivize innocuous and positive usage of AI.\n\nWe should use regulation to limit harm caused by AI. [The history of such regulation](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DQKgYhEYP86PLW7tZ) indicates this is most effective when the single party most capable of preventing harms is given full responsibility for any harms caused, regardless of fault. This forces them to invest in actually reducing the harm, rather than bureaucratic processes that render them blameless.\n\nThis suggests a simple approach: anyone deploying an AI model is liable for any actions that AI takes as if the company itself took those actions. When liability for an action depends on intent, we evaluate whether the AI had intent, even if no-one at the company did so.\n\nTo give some examples:\n\nThis will encourage AI companies to invest significantly more in safeguarding and interpretability. This is useful both immediately, and as AI gets increasingly capable and dangerous. Neither can companies get around this by using open source, as whoever deploys the model remains liable.\n\nI believe this proposal should be able to garner significant public support, many of whom are worried about AI, even if they are not worried about existential risk. It is also difficult for AI companies to campaign against without admitting that their models can cause harm.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-should-push-for-no-fault-liability-for-actions-taken-by-ai", "canonical_source": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Kj3YpqzhFySCjYcWi/we-should-push-for-no-fault-liability-for-actions-taken-by", "published_at": "2026-07-22 09:59:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-22 10:29:22.058004+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-safety", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Hugging Face"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-should-push-for-no-fault-liability-for-actions-taken-by-ai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-should-push-for-no-fault-liability-for-actions-taken-by-ai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-should-push-for-no-fault-liability-for-actions-taken-by-ai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-should-push-for-no-fault-liability-for-actions-taken-by-ai.jsonld"}}