Risk perception, tort liability, and emerging technologies

Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and robotic technologies bear great promise for improving our lives through safer products and new medical technologies. Driverless cars reduce accidents caused by human errors. Robot-assisted surgeries require minimal incisions and allow for faster recoveries. Smart products connected to the internet enable producers to communicate safety hazards to users and possibly fix the problems in real-time. At the same time, these novel technologies may also impose new risks of harm: connectivity may render the systems vulnerable to cyberattacks, the self-learning and opaque nature of machine-learning algorithms may make problems difficult to predict or diagnose, and the complexity of system integration and value chain could make a products functioning more reliant on that of others. In this context, lawmakers in various countries are grappling with the questions of whether and to what extent the current legal framework on safety and liability can adequately protect consumers.