Who Is Responsible When AI Causes Harm? AI And Product Liability

AI is increasingly being incorporated into a wide variety of products, including chatbots, medical devices, autonomous vehicles and household appliances¹. In many cases, AI makes these products more efficient, effective and adaptive; however, integrating AI also comes with risks. This raises an important question: who should be held responsible if something goes wrong and users are harmed?

Attributing fault for harm caused by AI systems

While AI is relatively new, product liability is not. Canada's existing product liability framework is well-equipped to govern claims related to harm caused by AI-enhanced products. This framework commonly engages three types of product liability claims that can be readily extrapolated to the AI context: