Negative Human Rights as a Basis for Long-term AI Safety and Regulation

If future AI systems are to be reliably safe in novel situations, they will need to incorporate general principles guiding them to robustly recognize which outcomes and behaviours would be harmful. Such principles may need to be supported by a binding system of regulation, which would need the underlying principles to be widely accepted. They should also be specific enough for technical implementation. Drawing inspiration from law, this article explains how negative human rights could fulfil the role of such principles and serve as a foundation both for an international regulatory system and for building technical safety constraints for future AI systems.