Liability for Emerging Digital Technologies: An Overview
Bernhard A. Koch
Abstract
I Setting the scene A Emerging digital technologiesbetween fascination and fearArtificial intelligence (AI), robotics, driverless cars, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT)even for the non-tech savvy, it was hard not to hear about these emerging digital technologies (EDT) 1 in recent years, considering how much they have dominated the public debate.These buzzwords stand for yet another leap forward in progress and prosperity with yet another industrial revolution.While the latter is certainly already on its way, we are rather at the beginning of this transformation still, with quite a lot of research and development yet ahead of us.This is highlighted by the enormous investments into these fields made by companies and policymakers alike, as evidenced inter alia by the fact that 'A Europe fit for the digital age' is one of the top priorities of the current EU Commission, with € 1.5 billion funding for targeted research and € 20 billion of total investment in AI expected per year. 2 At the same time, the undeniable uncertainties regarding potential risks of such new technologies has led many to question at least the pace of this development, if not such progress altogether.As a large player such as Microsoft ex-