Bot v. Bot v. Bot: Personality Rights and New Frontiers in Estate Litigation

  • December 22, 2020
  • Tyler Lin, articling student, de VRIES LITIGATION LLP

I – The age of bot v. bot v. bot

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (“AI”) have strained existing legal frameworks in North America across a spectrum of areas. The reason? The current legislative framework was created in a time before actors could be digitally resurrected from the dead[1], circus animals[2] and deceased icons[3] could be reanimated in hologram form, or the voices of deceased singers could be brought back to life to cover contemporary hits. These new technologies raise a whole set of legal issues which have never been contemplated before.

This article is a call for legislative guidance. Without it, our common law system can anticipate future difficulties. After all, the principle of stare decisis requires a working analogue, and there has never been anything like AI in legal or human history.

One example of technology outpacing legislation is the fascinating scenario of bot v. bot v. bot.

Self-described as the cross between a band, a research lab, and a crack team of hackers, DADABOTS is a group of scientists who are training AI to create music. By feeding a continuous stream of raw audio into a deep-learning neural network, the network can progressively “learn” short timescale patterns (e.g., a snare drum) to gradually longer patterns (e.g., a guitar riff). With this knowledge, it can produce new works by combining different patterns. By training the AI on specific sources of raw audio, such as Frank Sinatra, researchers can “train” the AI to produce music in a particular style.