Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important in our daily lives and so is academic research on its impact on various legal domains. One of the fields that has attracted much attention is extra-contractual or tort liability, as AI will inevitably cause damage. Reference can also be made to accidents involving autonomous vehicles. In this chapter, we will discuss some major and general challenges that arise in this context. We will thereby illustrate the remaining importance of national law to tackle these challenges and focus on procedural elements, including disclosure requirements and rebuttable presumptions. We will also illustrate how existing tort law concepts are being challenged by AI characteristics and provide an overview of regulatory answers.

The responsibilitiesand liability of the persons and organisations involved in the development of AI systems are not clearly identified. The assignment of liability will need government to mo e from a risk-based to a responsibility-based system. One possible approach would be to establish a pan-EU compensation fund for damages caused by digital technologies and AI, financed by the industry and insurance companies.

The EU definitions of AI moved from a narrow one to a broad one because of the EU policy which is to govern the phenomenon of AI in the broadest way that includes a wide range of situations. The key contents of the main EU AI documents including the European Parliament Resolution with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics, the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, the proposed AI Act, and the recent Proposal for an AI Liability Directive, are examined.