Chatbots. Legal Challenges And The Eu Legal Policy Approach

In the modern era of digital technology, chatbots are becoming a prominent element in the conversational services. Chatbots are software that can successfully communicate with human beings. Their popularity as a means of communication has been recently engaged not only in the business field, for the relation with clients and consumers, but also for the services provided by regulated profession such as doctors, lawyers, etc. The aim of this paper is to present the general juridical problems which may arise when employing a conversational agent in the communication process with humans. Issues such as taxonomy, intellectual property rights, civil liability, consumer protection, cybersecurity and compliance with secrecy regulations, privacy and data protection, and other problematic human rights issues are among those to be taken into consideration. Recent documents of legal policy of the European Union are also presented, namely the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonized rules on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and amending certain Union legislative acts. This proposal, although aimed to address AI in general, has a number of provisions also relevant for chatbots, as conversational AI.