7 May 2026 (Thursday), 1:30 – 2:30 PM
Room 901, 9/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
AI Companions are advanced Generative AI systems capable of interacting with users in a personalized, affective, and human-like manner. These systems are perceived as authentic experts across sensitive domains including medicine, psychology, and psychiatry, or as sources of comfort during periods of vulnerability, grief, or emotional distress. Such developments risk eroding the boundaries between the various elements that constitute an individual’s personality: not only rational thought, but also the capacity to experience and respond to human emotions. Who is responsible for the actions, statements, or harms produced by an AI Companion? This dynamic raises legal concerns regarding the fiduciary relationship that may arise between a human user and a machine which, although only apparently sentient, exhibits reactions capable of generating reliance and legitimate expectations that may, under certain circumstances, acquire juridical relevance. The analysis aims to contribute to the emerging debate on whether artificial agents should remain confined within the domain of legal objects or evolve toward a novel category of juridical subjectivity.
Speaker
Elena Falletti is Associate Professor of private comparative law and technology and law at the Carlo Cattaneo University, Castellanza (VA), Italy. She carried out her PhD in Comparative Law at the University “Statale” in Milan in 2006. When she was PhD candidate she gained a DAAD Stipendium and a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Westfälische Wilhelm-Universität Münster (Germany). She gained a post-doctoral Fellowship at the Max Planck Institut für Geistiges Eigentum of Munich (Germany). Her research activities focus on Privacy, Technology and Comparative Law.
Chair: Marianne von Blomberg, Incoming Global Academic Fellow, Law and Technology Centre, The University of Hong Kong
Please register at https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=106469