AI Ethics

Tang Xiao|Ethical Exploration And Legal Regulation Of "digital Resurrection" In The Context Of Artificial Intelligence

Tang Xiao|Ethical Exploration And Legal Regulation Of "digital Resurrection" In The Context Of Artificial Intelligence

Tang Xiao|Ethical Exploration And Legal Regulation Of "digital Resurrection" In The Context Of Artificial Intelligence

Digital resurrection technology involves digital personality rights protection and ethical crises. The proposal of digital personality rights is an objective need to adapt to the development of science and technology under the background of the integration and interconnection of numbers and physics, and it is also a response to the confirmation and protection of natural persons

Artificial Intelligence Ethics_Ethical Artificial Intelligence Mind Map_Ethical Artificial Intelligence Meaning

Ethical Artificial Intelligence Ethics_Ethical Artificial Intelligence Mind Map

Digital resurrection technology involves digital personality rights protection and ethical crises. The proposal of digital personality rights is an objective need to adapt to the development of science and technology under the background of the integration and interconnection of numbers and physics, and it is also a response to the confirmation and protection of natural persons' personal rights and interests in the process of continuous enrichment of their personal rights and interests. Digital personality rights represented by digital resurrection are one of personality rights, and have some characteristics of other rights, with the specificity of the subject, the comprehensive complexity of the object, and the limitations of the use of content. my country's Civil Code stipulates that personality rights are divided into general personality rights and specific personality rights, which reserves legal space for emerging personality rights. The construction of digital personality rights is mainly based on digital information, and the core of protection is the personal interests carried by it. With the development of digital resurrection technology, the suspension of the "secret" of "digital resurrection" in the virtual world requires customized related procedures under the premise of "ethics first". The close relatives of the deceased have the right to request the declaration of the death of a natural person in the digital world in their own name, based on the death judgment of the physical world.

Artificial Intelligence Ethics_Ethical Artificial Intelligence Mind Map_Ethical Artificial Intelligence Meaning

Digital resurrection refers to the use of artificial intelligence technology to collect data on the deceased's voice and portrait, such as the deceased's internal feature data, such as living habits, language habits, and algorithms to reproduce the voice and appearance of the deceased in a virtual image on electronic media. , and can interact with it. Digital resurrection technology is a life-oriented application catalyzed by artificial intelligence technology in the web3.0 era. It embodies a new technology with data and algorithms as the core, gradually penetrates from the virtual Internet into the real life of citizens, and behind it is the field of intelligent medical care and even A broad blue ocean of application in the field of intelligent biology. Digital resurrection technology involves digital personality rights protection and ethical crises. In its increasingly market-oriented process, it will inevitably face challenges, and it will violate the "moral scrutiny" triggered by natural ethics. Its "strong personal attachment" attribute and other artificial intelligence products will contain great legal risks before they are widely popularized in the future. Whether it can be generalized, the restrictions on artificial intelligence ethics under the current legislation gap and the provisions of the agreement are subject to legal relief for the leakage of data from "digital resurrection products" infringe upon citizens' personal information rights and privacy rights.

As a humanized product produced in the new round of technological changes, on the basis of thinking about the emotional value it gives to citizens, we must also think about the ethical crisis behind digital resurrection technology and the construction of a legal system under the current state of artificial intelligence law. and legal regulation. This article aims to analyze the origin, certification and protection of emerging rights represented by digital resurrection in the context of artificial intelligence, and promote the protection and realization of civil rights by refining and summarizing the characteristics and connotations of this emerging comprehensive rights.

Digital resurrection is a humanized product under the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology. It originated from the intelligence, decentralization and openness of the smart Internet. After the 2010s, a number of "original resurrection numbers" gradually emerged, mainly simulating the language habits and voices of the deceased. Entering the 2020s, digital resurrection technology has shown diversification and complexity, and has gradually reproduced on electronic carriers with more precise simulation of the portrait, sound and behavioral habits of the deceased. The value of digital resurrection has so far mainly revolved around the emotional entrusted needs of the deceased's close relatives and does not exclude commercial use.

In recent years, technology companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have gradually emerged to collect responses and evaluations of users on social networks, train artificial intelligence thinking and performance models, and artificial intelligence companies have obtained relevant patents in this field, through the help of The data such as sound, graphics, video and other data are designed to correspond to the mimicry model of the deceased before his death. In China, some companies' "customized digital people" functions, virtual digital clones and other functions can only upload photos, audio and other files of the deceased to resurrect the deceased on an electronic carrier and have a dialogue with the mimic digital people. It can be foreseeable that digital resurrection in the AI ​​field is in full swing. There is currently no precise industry norms in this field and it is easy to abuse.

The Analects of Confucius says: "If you are rituals when you are born, you will be buried with rituals when you die, and you will be sacrificed with rituals." In ancient China, the life and death of relatives expressed respect for the deceased through etiquette. The Civil Code also includes protection of the personal interests of the deceased. For those who violate the name, portrait, reputation, honor, privacy, and body, their spouses, children, and parents have the right to request the perpetrator to bear responsibility.

First, does the "regeneration" of the deceased on an electronic carrier through artificial intelligence technology deprive the deceased of his own personal dignity? Discussions on the dignity of the deceased and the death of the deceased Most scholars in China only stay at the physical level or revolve around "euthanasia". In practice, there is a lack of ethical principles and legal principles to protect the deceased's autonomy and privacy rights and interests during his lifetime. Some scholars have also proposed that with the maturity of digital technology, the statement of "digital death" (unless the deceased is authorized during his lifetime, it is immoral to "resurrection" of the deceased in the virtual world). According to Article 49 of the Personal Information Protection Law of my country, if a natural person dies, his close relatives may exercise the rights of review, copying, correcting, deleting, etc. on the relevant personal information of the deceased in this chapter for his legal and legitimate interests; the deceased has otherwise had Except for arrangements. From a legal perspective, except for the exclusion of the personal intention expression of the deceased during his lifetime, the current legal origin of the "digital resurrection" is based on the "self-legal and legitimate interests" of close relatives. There is a lack of clear legal interpretation in the judicial field about the understanding of legitimate interests. According to Article 1 of the Law, the explanation from the perspective of protecting personal information rights, regulating personal information processing activities, and promoting the rational use of personal information seems too far-fetched, and the authorization of digital resurrection has been subject to different ethical considerations in practice. In response to the request of the lonely mother Li to "resurrect" her daughter Chen through "digital resurrection". In order to prevent the relatives from being virtually addicted and affect Li's psychological healing, a company suspended the delivery of AI products that can be met at the technical level indefinitely, and replaced it with Li. Some simulates audio in a small segment.

Second, under the marketization of this technology, after the "digital resurrection product" flows into the market, under the framework of generative artificial intelligence technology, the "public interests" (commercial utilization of personal interests) of the deceased will be carried out by the counterpart. What is the standard boundary of legal behavior when used? The special nature of the coupling of digital resurrection data rights and personal interests means that the confirmation and protection of rights before pan-entertainment is urgently debated. Article 15 of the Supreme People's Court's provisions on the application of law in the trial of civil cases related to the use of facial recognition technology to handle personal information. After a natural person dies, the information processor will handle facial information in violation of the provisions of laws, administrative regulations or the agreement between the two parties. If the close relatives of the deceased request the information processor to bear civil liability in accordance with Article 994 of the Civil Code, these provisions shall apply. According to current laws and regulations, the infringement caused by digital resurrection is mainly stipulated by the Civil Code, Civil Procedure Law and Judicial Interpretation. The legal interests protected are the names, portraits, reputations, honors, privacy, bodies, bones and other rights of the deceased. The infringer shall be the name, portrait, reputation, honor, and rights of the deceased. Bear civil liability based on spiritual compensation.

As artificial intelligence technology is gradually integrating into the economic, cultural and social fields, the proposal of digital human rights has also become the core of intergenerational justice and the protection of human rights. In modern civil law theory, personal rights refer to the worldly rights of civil subjects to take personal interests as the object, and the exclusive rights closely related to the birth and death of civil subjects. The expansion and protection of personal rights is also reflected in that when a natural person dies and when his personal interests are infringed, his close relatives have the right to provide relief through litigation. The current legal principles for protecting personal interests are based on the kin rights (identity rights) between the deceased and his close relatives. Professor Wang Zejian believes that identity legal interests and personality legal interests are both non-property legal interests, and the root cause is that identity legal interests also have personality relationships. In other words, the protection of the personal interests of the deceased comes from the personality relationship between the deceased and his close relatives.

Regarding the protection of the personal interests of the deceased, the main theoretical basis is "direct protection theory" and "indirect protection theory". Most of the current judicial practice views in my country believe in the "indirect protection theory", that is, indirectly protecting the deceased himself through the protection of the personal rights and interests of the close relatives of the deceased. personal interests. In recent years, the mainstream view in my country denies that the deceased has personal rights. For the deceased himself, based on the legal fact of death, the protection of self-rights no longer exists. For the close relatives of the deceased, this legal benefit is a personality right with a non-property nature. Professor Liu Deliang recently proposed that as mentioned earlier, identity and personality rights are a discretionary absolute right based on a specific identity relationship. The subject is the counterparty of the identity relationship, and the object is the personal care interests determined based on the distance of the kinship relationship, which is reflected in the dignity interests of the identity and personality rights holder.

The close relatives of the deceased enjoy the identity and personality right to "digital resurrection" of the deceased. The rights involved in digital resurrection technology do not involve commercial purposes only occur when the counterparty violates the personal interests of the deceased, and are an identity and personality right for the close relatives of the deceased.

With the extension and expansion of the concept of civil law rights, under the framework of the traditional civil law "people" and "things" dichotomy, it is obviously difficult to simply divide "digital resurrected people" into "things" and it is difficult to carry the personal interests carried on their objects. Scholars believe that special objects that give personal interests and property interests, such as "frozen embryos", are called "personal things". Its essence is to divide it into one of the "things". According to Article 3 of the "Regulations on the Management of Human Assisted Reproductive Technology", it is prohibited to buy and sell embryos in any form. "Frozen embryos" are not reciprocal and are prohibited from entering the market. According to the consensus of both parties, the threshold for "digital resurrected people" to enter the market is low. This article believes that, first of all, there is a difference from the property rights relief claimed when the general "personal things" is infringed. It is also based on respect for human nature and human ethics. The rights involved in digital resurrection works are mainly an identity and personality right of the close relatives of the deceased. "Objectification" not only does not reflect personal respect for the deceased, but also materializing emotional value is unacceptable for the deceased's close relatives. Secondly, from the perspective of infringement relief, the focus on spiritual compensation also confirms the aforementioned view.

With the maturity and marketization of digital resurrection technology, the identity and personality rights carried by "digital resurrection persons" are not enough to summarize all their attributes. In addition to the concrete manifestation of general personal rights, intellectual property rights are an auxiliary attributes in their expansion process. It is becoming more and more prominent. From the perspective of personal rights, civil subjects can carry out various civil activities on personal interests according to their own will, control, utilize, limited transfer rights, and appropriate disposal rights. The right to digital resurrection not only involves the identity relationship of the perpetrator, but also relates to the civil legal acts of the civil subject and factual acts. According to Article 3 of the Copyright Law, works refer to intellectual achievements that are original and can be expressed in a certain form in the fields of literature, art and science.

According to the case of copyright dispute over artificial intelligence generated pictures issued by the first instance sentenced by the Beijing Internet Court in 2023, the Beijing Internet Court believes that the essence of the image generation of artificial intelligence models is created by people using tools, and the pictures involved are generated based on the intellectual output of the plaintiff. The plaintiff enjoys copyright to create pictures. The judgment in this case is of reference significance for all rights to generate works through the artificial intelligence platform.

Clarifying the subject and object of the copyright of "digital resurrection person" is of constructive significance for respecting and protecting human rights. This article believes that the copyright of the "digital resurrection" that can be used to achieve simple interactions is achieved through "weak artificial intelligence (/ANI), such as imitating the voice of the dead or creating a pre-edited algorithmic script. The close relatives themselves; and the complex digital resurrection is achieved through "Strong Artificial Intelligence (/AGI)" or "Super Artificial Intelligence (Su-per /ASI)", which requires the collection of comprehensive life characteristics of the deceased's life habits and language habits. The copyright of the "digital resurrection person" with a quasi-perpet consciousness is shared by the cooperative author according to Article 14 of my country's Copyright Law. Copyright is divided into copyright and copyright property rights. Copyright is generally regarded as the right to protect the author's non-property rights and interests. In both countries in the British and American legal systems and the civil law system, the right to sign and the right to complete the work are regarded as the criterion in the specific copyright. . It is shared by engineers or programmers and close relatives, but only in the field of copyright. Engineers or programmers do not naturally enjoy the identity and personality rights of such "works". Based on respect for the personal dignity of the deceased and the deceased's close relatives, it should be more important. Exclude property rights in the copyright of engineers or programmers. This is also the unity of Article 992 of the Civil Code that personal rights shall not be waived, transferred or inherited to form a legal order level.

The close relatives of the deceased enjoy the copyright of the "digital resurrection" of the deceased. In the process of digital resurrection creation, the three legal elements mentioned in the copyright law: literature, art and science, originality, intellectual achievements, and "digital resurrection" can become a work protected by law.

Regarding the commercial availability of digital resurrection, Article 993 of the Civil Code stipulates that civil subjects may permit others to use their own names, names, portraits, etc., except where permits are not allowed in accordance with the law or according to nature. This article stipulates that the subject of commercial personality rights for personal interests is limited to the person with civil capacity himself, and does not state whether he has commercial personality rights for others. Article 49 of the Personal Information Protection Law provides a guaranteed exclusion, that is, unless the deceased excludes the resurrection of the digits through expression of intention during his lifetime, close relatives can "resurrect" the deceased within a legal and legitimate scope, which is only based on the personal interests of the deceased. Protect, not favor free creation in the market. Unlike the "works" created by general artificial intelligence platforms, this article believes that digital resurrection does not have a commercial personality, that is, the possibility of close relatives making profits through "digital resurrection people".

The object of personal interests is divided into material personal interests, such as life, health, body and other interests, as well as spiritual personal interests, including portrait, privacy, reputation and other interests. The protection of personality rights law takes into account both property interests and spiritual interests. Out of respect for personality and the maintenance of public order and good customs, civil law absolutely excludes commercial use in certain aspects of personal interests, such as physical rights and prohibits trading. In some aspects, no prohibitive rules are formulated, and rights such as portraits and names can be transferred or licensed to others through authorization or contracts. In other words, they have commercial personal rights in certain areas of personal interests.

Digital resurrection is comprehensive and integrates multiple personal interests of the deceased in the process of creation, mainly involving portraits, names, reputations, privacy, personal information, etc. Digital resurrection is staggered and lagging, and "works" are generally generated after the death of a civil subject. In summary, close relatives can create digital images of the deceased through contracts and other expressions of intention with the platform, but do not enjoy the commercial personality rights of the deceased's digital resurrection and make profits through digital people.

The close relatives of the deceased do not enjoy the commercial personality right to "digital resurrection" of the deceased. In the current digital resurrection field, the term "legitimate" in Article 49 of the Personal Information Protection Law can be interpreted as two purposes in the aforementioned circumstances: 1. Out of respect for personality. Including mourning to the parties involved, such as the digital resurrection creation of fans spontaneously with idol singers (Teres Teng and Coco Lee); psychological comfort to the parties involved. Both reflect respect for people's emotions. The second is for the purpose of maintaining public order and good customs. Through the "reappearance" of heroes and martyrs, we will promote patriotic education and promote the deeds and spirit of heroes.

Against the background of legislative-centeredism, my country's protection of emerging rights has gradually developed from the early legislative protection model to the current judicial-center protection model, characterized by diversification of rights protection, dynamic protection methods, and focusing on case justice. Digital resurrection, a type of rights related to spiritual and property interests, are mainly presented in the form of data of personal information, both subject specificity and object comprehensiveness, complexity, and personal nature, and have new forms, new connotations and new meanings. The rights that arise in the context of intelligence, namely data personality rights, are transitioning from the level of real rights to fully legal rights.

my country's Civil Code stipulates that personality rights are divided into general personality rights and specific personality rights, which reserves legal space for emerging personality rights. Some scholars have proposed that information personality rights are comprehensive rights based on specific rights such as information privacy rights, personal information rights, credit rights and the right to be forgotten. It mainly focuses on information protection, focusing on citizens' information security and privacy tranquility in a narrow sense. Data personality rights represented by digital resurrection are broadly based on the perspective of the broad sense, not only include citizens' identity and personal interests, copyright interests, public interests, personal information interests, privacy and tranquility, etc., but have broader connotations. The purpose behind both is to maintain personal dignity and adapt to coordinate the development of society.

Subject specificity means that the subject of data personality rights is not only a specific civil subject himself, but under specific conditions, in order to safeguard the personal interests and personal dignity of natural persons, the scope of the subject has also expanded to close relatives of civil subjects based on identity relations, so as to Digital resurrection is an example, its essence is to protect the personal interests behind the data information. There are precedents for the relief of rights and interests in other areas of civil law, such as the agency and guardianship system of persons without or limited civil capacity, the protection system of the personal interests of the deceased, and the request system for invalid marriage. The legal purpose behind it is the parties. When the legitimate rights and interests of the parties are infringed, one of the weak parties cannot effectively apply for relief to their rights and interests. As the persons with whom they are related, close relatives exercise their claim rights on their behalf, making up for the loopholes in which the parties cannot or are inconvenient to protect their rights and interests in a timely manner. The legal basis for close relatives to have the personal rights of personal rights over the digital resurrection of the deceased does not originate from Article 1122 of the Civil Code, but Article 994 of the Civil Code. The general view is that personality rights and interests cannot be inherited, so put aside the material of the deceased In addition to sexual heritage, the legal root of relatives’ personal rights regarding data about the deceased is to safeguard the personal dignity of the deceased. As mentioned above, as a tool to assist in the completion of "works", engineers and programmers do not enjoy the data personality rights of such artificial intelligence outputs.

The comprehensiveness and complexity of the object means that in form, the object of digital personality rights not only uses citizens' personal information as the object of protection, Article 1034, paragraph 2 of the Civil Code will include "name, date of birth, ID number, and biometric information. , address, telephone number, email address, health information, whereabouts information, etc. "In essence, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate have announced the "On the Handling of Defamation and other Criminal slander in the Information Network" The Judicial Interpretation of Cases stipulates that fabricating facts on the mobile Internet under specific circumstances will result in relevant criminal penalties for fabricating facts and slandering others. In other words, citizens' right to reputation and honor are expressed in the information network by Internet personality. When the real personality is violated with digital personality, they will also be regulated and punished by law. The digital personality is formed through the portrait, name, reputation, honor, privacy, personal information and other personal rights of the civil subject. When the counterparty infringes on digital personality rights, it often involves a series of parties' rights being damaged.

The limitation of content means that the law gives the right subject the positive power to independently decide and utilize its personal interests, and cannot make use of all personal interests. The primary speciality of personality rights lies in its defensiveness. Personal rights are strongly dependent on natural persons. The law protects personal interests through tort liability. There is no problem of obtaining or exercising personal rights itself, and its purpose is also to respect the personality. . The protection of the personal interests of the deceased mainly adopts a dual protection model of criminal and civilian protection. From a physical perspective, Article 234, Paragraph 3 stipulates that those who steal, insult, intentionally destroy corpses, bones, and ashes shall be subject to a period of less than 3 years. In prison, detention or control. From the perspective of spiritual interests, it is mainly stipulated in the Civil Code and the Personal Information Protection Law. As mentioned above, in the field of digital resurrection, in addition to the two reasons of respect for personality or maintenance of public order and good customs, close relatives do not enjoy the commercial personal rights and the right to use personal interests in the "work" of the digital resurrection of the deceased.

The overall requirements of the "Opinions on Strengthening the Governance of Science and Technology Ethics" mention that promoting the healthy development of science and technology requires ethics to be first, integrating ethics into the entire process of research, development and use, respecting personal dignity and personal privacy, which is conducive to the principles of science and technology ethics clear.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in January 2024, according to the needs of industrial development and industry management, relevant units proposed a plan for the establishment of the Metaverse Standardization Working Group. According to the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Innovation and Development of the Metacosmic Industry (2023-2025)" released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five departments, the Metacosmic refers to an immersive interconnected space that integrates the digital and physical worlds, and is an integrated innovation and application of new generation information technology. future industry. In the next few years, citizens' digital personality in the metaverse will gradually become rich and complete. Regarding the judgment of death of a natural person, the Civil Code shall prevail in the death certificate, household registration, and other valid identity registration records. If the statutory conditions and procedures are met, the interested party may apply to the court to declare death. The above judgment is based on the confirmation of death in the physical world. It can be foreseeable that with the development of digital resurrection technology, aborting the "secret" of "digital resurrection people" in the virtual world requires customized related procedures under the premise of "ethics first". The close relatives of the deceased have the right to request the declaration of the death of a natural person in the digital world in their own name, based on the death judgment of the physical world.

The construction of digital personality rights is mainly based on digital information, and the core of protection is the personal interests carried by it. The internal logical relationship not only involves the relationship between personal rights and parental rights, personal rights and copyright rights and other rights, but is difficult to unify in the current Civil Code system. The proposal of digital personality rights is conducive to a more complete personal rights theory, which echoes the era of artificial intelligence. . The normative construction of digital personality rights has laid a theoretical foundation for protecting the personality rights and interests of natural persons in the web3.0 era.

Emerging rights that carry personal rights and interests are constantly expanding. New trends generated by technologies such as digital resurrection have created new social relations, and it is urgent to enrich theoretical interpretations and legal system construction based on the Civil Code. Under the premise of the new generation of innovation-driven Internet high-end, intelligent and green, highlighting digital personality rights under the current legal system and framework is a necessary way to respond to public expectations and the requirements of the rule of law.

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