Are AIs legal persons? Well, a lawmaker in Ohio, Rep. Thaddeus Claggett, has proposed a law that would “make it illegal for AI systems to be treated like people.” Now, that might seem obvious—of course a computer algorithm isn’t a person! But keep in mind that many in the younger generations don’t see it this way. To them, AI is their friend, confidant, and possibly even future spouse! They treat AI as a person!
This proposed new bill is meant:
To keep humans firmly in control of machines. [Claggett] says that as AI systems begin to act more like humans, the law must draw a clear line between person and program.
Under the proposed legislation, AI systems would not be able to own property, manage bank accounts or serve as company executives. They would not have the same rights or responsibilities as people. The bill also makes any marriage between a human and an AI, or between two AI systems, legally impossible.
Claggett believes the concern is not about robot weddings happening anytime soon. Instead, he wants to prevent AI from taking on the legal powers of a spouse, such as holding power of attorney or making financial and medical decisions for someone else.
The bill also specifies that if an AI causes harm, the human owners or developers would be responsible. That means a person cannot blame their chatbot or automated system for mistakes or damage. Responsibility stays with the humans who built, trained or used the system.
While all this may seem far-fetched, AI is moving at such a pace that it’s difficult to know what kinds of futuristic problems will soon be reality. And the idea of people “marrying” an AI isn’t much of a reach. A study earlier this year found that 8 in 10 Gen Z adults would consider marrying an AI!
Actually, I recently made a video about a trend in Japan where young single men are marrying holograms!
As I explain in the video, that’s not marriage. Marriage isn’t just whatever we want it to be, because humans didn’t create marriage! God created marriage. It’s his institution, so he gets to define it, and he has clearly done that for us in Genesis.
Genesis 1:27 reads, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 2:24 goes on to say, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
In Matthew 19:4–5, Jesus further reiterates, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?”
Yes, marriage is between one man and one woman—one biological male and one biological female—for life!
And no matter how lifelike and seemingly sentient AI becomes as programming gets better and better, it will never be a person. Why? Because ultimately being a person means we’re made in the very image and likeness of God. And a computer program is just made in the image of man, not the image of God: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26).
Humans are unique, different from the rest of creation, because we alone bear God’s image.
