Aberdeen University is hosting a webinar with Professor Tim Dornis, Leibniz Universität Hannover, on AI and international contracts.

AI is everywhere. It not only drives your car, operates your Google searches, organises your Netflix movies and your Spotify music selection.

Sooner or later, it will also take over your household: Some of us own an autonomous cleaning device – but do you also have a “smart fridge” in your kitchen? This is the infamous (well, at least in legal scholarly literature) device that autonomously does the shopping for you. Without your supervision and interference, it knows what you like and don’t or what you are allergic against and it takes care that there is always enough food and beverages in your kitchen.

The idea of using such a device may no longer seem too dystopian, but the legal issues it will bring up are numerous and complex: Not only are we still wondering whether an AI system has the capacity to contract at all – and, accordingly, who should be party to such a transaction.

Not less complicated and dubious (yet, even more interesting) is the “international” perspective on AI shopping frenzies. In short: If your fridge in Aberdeen develops a fine taste of its own and starts ordering expensive wine in France or Italy – what law determines whether there is a valid contract and whether you are obligated to pay?

Register here