CRIMINAL LIABILITY IN RELATION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SELECT JURISDICTIONS AND VIETNAM

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become widespread in social life, bringing many benefits and profoundly changing how people work and live. However, alongside its positive values, AI also creates significant risks, especially when exploited to commit crimes, posing challenges to the legal system, particularly criminal law. Despite this, most countries have yet to recognize AI as an independent subject of criminal responsibility. Determining criminal responsibility for AI therefore becomes a complex legislative issue in the context of digital transformation. This article examines international experiences and uses a comparative legal approach to assess the necessity of imposing criminal liability on AI. The article concludes that rather than granting AI legal personhood or treating it as a criminal actor, it is more appropriate to assign criminal liability to the human or corporate actors who develop, deploy, or operate AI systems. This ensures the core principles of modern criminal law, the stability of the legal system, and enhances adaptability to technological advancements.