Dazza Greenwood discusses liability and autonomous legal entities with Steve Tendon, expanding on issues raised at the Harvard Law School 2019 Legal Symposium, Panel on Torts and Liability for Autonomous Systems.
Guest Steve Tendon on Autonomous Legal Entities by Computational Law Report
For context, watch the Harvard Law School panel discussion referenced in the podcast, below:
Legal Tech in Torts: Liability for Autonomous Systems
Steve Tendon’s remarks on LinkedIn regarding the Harvard Law syposium panel:
Great panel. Good distinction by Primavera between decisional autonomy (AI) and operational autonomy (DAO). Still no one picked up the future scenarios: [I] When AI and DAOs will have babies... [II] the element of potential self-sufficiency of DAOs (in terms of financial autonomy). [III] The case when DAOs outlive any of humans involved in their creation or running. (Wait until someone writes a DAO in COBOL... it will live for ever! :) [IV] the case when the economic weight of the underlying blockchain will be so huge that forking a public blockchain is no longer an economically viable option (think hundreds of trillions $ of transactions on the chain). [V] The case of massively distributed validating participants (see Snow/Avalanche family of consensus protocols) where every smartphone, microprocessor or even sensor is potentially a miner.
This podcast follows up on Steve’s comments, item by item.
About Steve Tendon
Steve Tendon is the Managing Director of TameFlow Consulting/ChainStrategies (https://chainstrategies.com), a consulting firm that provides research, analysis and strategy development for businesses that need to adopt or transition to Blockchain technologies. A senior executive management consultant, adviser, speaker and author. Steve’s research and consulting work focuses on the use of emerging technologies — in particular Blockchain technologies — to improve business performance. In 2016 he was the strategic adviser for the Ministry of Economy, Investment and Small Business (MEIB) of the Maltese Government, developed the vision of the "Blockchain Island" and designed Malta’s National Blockchain Strategy (unanimously approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in April, 2017). Subsequently he was appointed as the Strategy Lead to Malta’s National Blockchain Task Force advising the Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation (FSDEI) Office of the Prime Minister on implementing the country's Blockchain strategy. In 2017 he founded and was the first Chairman of the Blockchain Malta Association. In 2018 he founded the "My Blockchain Island" business club (https://my.blockchainisland.club) In 2018 he was acclaimed in the "Lattice80 Blockchain 100" list of global Blockchain influencers (https://www.lattice80.com/lattice80-blockchain-100-report/). In 2018 he received the Malta Blockchain Award for "Outstanding Contribution to the Blockchain Island 2018." He holds a MSc in "Software Project Management" with the University of Aberdeen, a "MIT Fintech Innovation: Future Commerce" certificate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an "Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme" certificate with the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.
This top article highlights some of the key issues at play, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of healthcare. And this is a fascinating panel discussion on the future of autonomous legal entities, with important implications for the healthcare industry as well. As AI and DAOs continue to evolve, we will need to address complex questions around liability and accountability, particularly as these entities become more autonomous and self-sufficient. The healthcare industry, in particular, stands to advantage radically from these technological advancements, however we need to additionally be conscious of the practicable dangers and challenges. As we discover the probabilities of self sustaining healthcare systems, we need to stay vigilant in our efforts to make sure that these structures are safe, reliable, and accountable.
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