Denying Personhood to AI: An Analysis of U.S. State Legislation on AI Legal Status

Austin Smith, mentored by Lucius Caviola, catalogued the first wave of US state bills written to keep AI systems out of legal personhood.

Summary

Since 2022, 23 bills have been introduced across 12 U.S. states seeking to restrict the legal rights and responsibilities that AI systems can hold. These "Exclusion Bills" typically deny legal personhood to AI systems, and in some cases declare them non-conscious, making them the first meaningful legislative engagement with the legal status of AI. Most follow one of three common templates, pointing to coordinated legislative diffusion rather than independent drafting. The stated motivations are religious conceptions of human exceptionalism, concerns about liability for harms caused by AI systems, and child safety, while opposition has come primarily from a small number of environmental groups with sporadic objections from industry, experts and federal Republicans. The paper argues that legislating against AI personhood this early eliminates policy options, risks unforeseen consequences and may erode public trust, before the implications of more advanced systems are understood.