Corporations as Artificial Persons in the AI Age

Abstract

With talk of driverless companies and bots substituting for human beings on company boards, the spectre of a future controlled by entities devoid of human morality is upon us. But has the future been here for longer than we all realise; has the corporation really changed?

The argument in this paper is that the shift to artificial legal persons being controlled by AI is not therefore as radical as it might appear to be. Business corporations have been separate from human beings since the 17th century where developments in the English East India Company meant boards were in effect charged to act in the interests of shareholders' capital rather than the shareholders themselves. That separation of capital is means perpetual corporations grow and prosper at least financially. But constrained decision making by human agents of corporations means corporations can never be truly altruistic: these amorphous selfish entities have been long amongst us.

Keywords: Corporate governance, corporate law, corporate theory, Artificial Intelligence, Innovation

JEL Classification: K22