Comment by qwery

The technical/technological nature of the system that made the choice is irrelevant. That is, I think it's right to ignore what a decision is, as you put it. The ability to make decisions is not the ability to choose -- it's the ability, right, privelege, obligation, expectation to take responsibility.

Discussing anything like personhood for AI is really jumping the gun.

The chatbot is software. The software does what it is told. It performs tasks requested of it by the user/operator in line with the (designed, ) immplemented functionality of the code. If the software fails to do what it is told, the vendor has not provided working software. If an operator controlling some software does not do so in a reasonable, safe manner, the operator is negligent. If damages result from such failures or actions, the people who made the decisions that led to that are the people who are responsible.

It does not matter how complex the software is: if a vendor of some software doesn't expect it fail in costly ways because it's too complex or hard to understand, that is a (legal, ethical, moral) failure of the vendor.

It does not matter how autonomous it is: an autonomous sprinkler system that floods the neighbour's basement is not held liable for the damages. The owner, installer, vendor, etc. is. -- maybe the neighbour even did(n't) something wrong!