The “adaptation” of the right to damages to artificial intelligence: the proposed Civil liability directive

The unstoppable spreading of artificial intelligence and the potential benefits it generates are unquestionable facts. However, it also poses significant challenges, so European institutions have shown special interest in having adequate regulation. In this sense, there are two realities that sometimes appear to be confronted: technological development and the protection of the rights of individuals. In order to provide a satisfactory response, the European Union has articulated what appears to be the definitive strategy based on three fundamental blocks: the horizontal rules on artificial intelligence systems, security legislation and the derived civil liability. Regarding the first two, it should be noted that the proposed Act of 2021 (the so-called Artificial intelligence act), despite not resolving the civil liability issue, lays a foundation (the concept of an artificial intelligence system itself, the classification of the latter, the requirements, criteria and obligations derived) from which special provisions arise; this is, the proposed Directive on the modification of the Directive on defective products and the proposed Directive for the adaptation of extra-contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence. For this reason, the aforementioned basic guidelines, as well as the relations between the two proposals of Directives, will be analysed in this study, even in a shallow manner, in order to expose the current legislative frame. In any case, we will affect in more detail the proposal of the Directive for the adaptation of extra-contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence, with which we aim to avoid the possible differences arising when the jurisdictional bodies adapt the rules, which would result in an evident legal insecurity, in fragmentation and a decrease in economic investment in this sector.