AI-Enabled Manipulative Techniques: A Contract Law Perspective

Artificial Intelligence can use manipulation, undermining an individual’s decision-making processes at an unprecedented level. The issue of computational manipulation has already caught the attention of the EU, which prohibited it in the Artificial Intelligence Act, Art.5. However, this legislation will not apply in the UK and contracts will be signed notwithstanding any possible future prohibition. Will those contracts be valid? This article analyses the differences between human-to-human and AI-to-human manipulation, as well as existing doctrines and legislation, to propose a solution against the use of AI to manipulate individuals into signing a contract.