Rule-following robots? Transitional legal disruption through regulatee design and engineering
This academic article explores how artificial intelligence and extended reality technologies challenge traditional legal and regulatory frameworks by enabling the direct design and engineering of human behavior and perception. The author argues that AI and XR can manipulate internal decision-making and external sensory experiences, effectively creating regulatees that embody desired outcomes rather than complying with external norms. This form of regulatory incorporation paradoxically mirrors individual agency, rendering contemporary legal doctrines ill-equipped to recognize or address the resulting harms.
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Who issued it
Who it governs
Researchers, regulators, and legal scholars seeking to understand how advanced technologies challenge traditional legal doctrines.
What the document contains
The article examines the transitional legal disruptions caused by AI and XR applications that interfere with human internal decision-making processes and sensory experiences, analyzing how such technological affordances enable the direct design and engineering of regulatees.
The document does not provide statutory text, specific enforcement mechanisms, or concrete legislative proposals.
- Artificial intelligence and extended reality technologies provide powerful tools for manipulating human behavior and internal decision-making.
- By leveraging cognitive science insights into perception, technologies can be used to design and engineer regulatees rather than merely enforce rules.
- Traditional legal and regulatory frameworks fail to recognize technologically driven behavioral modification as an external influence due to its alignment with agent agency.
- The capacity to shape human desires and perceptions creates severe challenges for articulating legal harms and maintaining doctrinal integrity.
Not stated
How it scores
Each score is backed by a quote verified against the document text. Editorial review has not yet confirmed them.
Accountability
0/5Clear responsibility for AI outcomes
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24
Fairness
0/5Non-discrimination and equitable treatment
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24
Human Dignity
2/5Respect for the inherent worth of persons
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) technologies present regulators with powerful tools to manipulate human behaviour, but more perniciously, human desire and indeed human being.
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24
Human Oversight
0/5Humans remain in control of consequential decisions
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24
Privacy
0/5Protection of personal data and private life
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24
Transparency
0/5Openness about how AI systems work and are used
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24
Enforcement
0/5Consequences and compliance mechanisms with real force
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24
Impact Assessment
0/5Required assessment of an AI system's risks/impacts before or during use
ABSTRACT
screening score · 2026-10-24