AI Frontier Institute

Artificial intelligence: defenses.

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California Assembly Bill 316 (Chapter 672), signed October 13, 2025, adds Section 1714.46 to the Civil Code to close a potential liability loophole in AI-related civil actions. The bill prohibits any defendant who developed, modified, or used artificial intelligence from asserting as a defense that the AI 'autonomously caused' harm to a plaintiff. The bill defines 'artificial intelligence' as an engineered or machine-based system that varies in autonomy and can infer from inputs how to generate outputs influencing physical or virtual environments (Section 1714.46(a)). While the autonomous-causation defense is barred (Section 1714.46(b)), the bill expressly preserves defendants' ability to raise other affirmative defenses—including evidence on causation and foreseeability—and to introduce evidence of comparative fault by other parties (Section 1714.46(c)). In short, human developers, modifiers, and users of AI remain legally accountable for harms their AI systems cause and cannot deflect liability by claiming the AI acted on its own.

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