A mother based in the UAE is petitioning a family court to let ChatGPT help raise her son in the event of her death, in what is thought to be one of the first cases of its kind.
Byron James, a partner at Expatriate Law, said his firm is working with the woman to include the request in her will, with a draft being prepared for registration in Abu Dhabi.
According to James, the mother has stipulated that should she pass away, the son’s guardian ‘must put every major decision’ about the son’s life to ChatGPT, with an accompanying written record of the mother’s ‘values, principles, hopes and parenting wishes’ to guide its response.
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A redacted copy of the draft petition to the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court, shared by James, would compel the son’s guardian to ‘keep a written record of each question put, the output received and the decision taken, with any reason for departing from the output’.
James told Spear’s that there was an important distinction between appointing AI as the child’s guardian and what he and his client are asking the court – namely: ‘asking human guardians to consult an AI system as one source of guidance when making decisions about a child’s upbringing’.
He added that the model which he is proposing on behalf of his client has the potential to adapt to new circumstances in the son’s life: ‘A traditional letter of wishes is necessarily static. It reflects what the parent knew and anticipated at the time it was written.’
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‘An AI-assisted process could help guardians revisit those wishes in the context of new circumstances, whether that’s a difficult educational choice, a change in family circumstances or an entirely new challenge,’ he said.
James is a leading family lawyer in the Gulf region, and has advised on similar precedent-setting cases. Earlier this year, James acted for a German father who wanted to stop his children appearing in the social media content of their mother, his ex-wife and a prominent influencer.
Spear’s contacted several lawyers from its rankings of the best probate and family lawyers for their thoughts and will update the article in due course.
