AI and Corporate Personhood - A Comparative Analysis

This paper examines the potential extension of legal personhood to artificial intelligence systems through a comparative analysis with corporate personhood. As AI systems grow increasingly autonomous, questions about their legal status become more pressing. Rather than viewing AI personhood as revolutionary, we frame it as an evolutionary development in legal thought, drawing parallels with how societies have historically granted personhood to non-human entities like corporations based on practical needs. The analysis explores multiple dimensions of comparison, including conferral of legal status, rights and duties, decision-making agency, representation, accountability, and existence parameters. While corporations and AI systems share potential capacities to own assets, form contracts, and bear responsibility, AI's technical autonomy and emergent behaviors present unique challenges that corporate law does not fully address. This paper establishes a foundation for further research on adapting corporate personhood concepts to AI while developing novel approaches for AI's distinctive characteristics. We suggest that common law jurisdictions may have advantages in developing case-by-case precedents as AI capabilities evolve, and recommend interim measures such as mandatory registration, insurance requirements, and technical auditing to build regulatory frameworks that can accommodate future developments in AI personhood.