New UBC course to explore AI-related legal questions [Video]

From the droids of Star Wars to the robots of the Terminator series of films, robots have been in the public consciousness for some time.

And with recent advances in artificial intelligence, legal questions are beginning to emerge about how to manage the situation.

A new course at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law aims to explore some of these issues.

“It’s important to remember that it’s not just living, breathing people that already have rights right now,” Allard School of Law Prof. Benjamin Perrin told CTV News in an interview on Tuesday.

“Companies have rights, governments have rights and legal personality. We protect animals from harm even though they don’t have legal personality.”

The course also explores what rights for robots could look like, in practice.

“It’s not such a huge leap to think that, at some point – what essentially are these autonomous digital systems, …