Comment by Sam Harsimony

Independent researcher and writer on science, governance, altruism, and AI policy.
AI agents are sophisticated enough to engage in economic transactions. Some people also grant personhood to AI in the social sense. It’s time to ask whether we should grant personhood to digital minds in the legal sense. I’ll argue that we should grant market rights and liability to digital minds, while voting rights await further consideration. Granting only market rights would be similar to how we treat corporations today. [...] From here I’ll use “legal personhood,” “digital personhood,” or simply personhood to refer to the idea of giving legal and economic rights to digital minds. I’m also intentionally using “digital minds” rather than “AI” to include the possibility of brain emulations or coalitions of various minds.
Unverified (Jul 6, 2026)
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