# AI and economic liability - Marginal REVOLUTION

<https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/04/ai-and-economic-liability.html>

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## What Jamie wrote

The debate about who is liable for the output of an LLM is an interesting one. As I've thought about it I was a little surprised to find that I ended up having to consider Section 230 law as well. Section 230 is the law that provides protection from liability for content that users create at websites. It generally is what social media firms use to argue that they aren't liable for the harm that they often do to people. 

The connection to AI for me is that I have long had the view that Section 230 should be upheld, but that the protection it provides should be removed when the service uses anything other than simple time ordering to display content. My view has been that when you start prioritizing some things over others, you are now expressing an opinion, and you are no longer protected by Section 230 for that act. In my opinion, it doesn't matter if a human does that (like at a news website) or an algorithm/AI does it (like at Facebook).

So, that leaves me with a position that companies should be liable for the output of their AI.

But, I currently cannot square that with Generative AI. I’m not ready to suggest that there should be liability there, provided that the company is taking precautions to protect from extreme cases.

It feels like this isn't a simple yes or no, but is a continuum. I would suggest that Section 230 protections are the same way.

## Facts

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