Criminological Risks of Using Artificial Intelligence

The topics of artificial intelligence (AI) and the development of intelligent technologies are highly relevant and important in the modern digital world. Over its fifty years of history, AI has developed from a theoretical concept to an intelligent system capable of making independent decisions. Key advantages of using AI include, primarily, an opportunity for mankind to get rid of routine work and to engage in creative activities that machines are not capable of. According to international consulting agencies, global business investments in digital transformation will reach 58 trillion USD by 2021, while global GDP will grow by 14 %, or 15.7 trillion USD, in connection with the active use of AI. However, its rapid evolvement poses new threats connected with AI’s ability to self-develop that the state and the society have to counteract; specifically, they have to introduce normative regulation of AI activities and to address threats arising from its functioning. The authors present a thorough analysis of the opinions of leading researchers in the field of social aspects of AI’s functioning. They also state that the regulation of the status of AI as a legal personality, not to mention its ability to commit legally meaningful actions, remains an open question today. At present, the process of creating a criminological basis for applying AI, connected with the development of new intelligent technologies, is underway, it requires actions and decisions aimed at preventing possible negative effects of its use and reacting to them on a state level. The authors’ analysis of the history of AI’s emergence and development has allowed them to outline its key features that pose criminological risks, to determine criminological risks of using AI and to present their own classification of such risks. In particular, they single out direct and indirect criminological risks of using AI. A detailed analysis has allowed the authors to identify an objective need for establishing special state agencies that will develop state policy in the sphere of normative legal regulation, control and supervision over the use of AI.