Elena Falletti

AI Companions are advanced Generative AI systems capable of interacting with users in a personalized, affective, and human-like manner. These systems are perceived as authentic experts across sensitive domains including medicine, psychology, and psychiatry, or as sources of comfort during periods of vulnerability, grief, or emotional distress. Such developments risk eroding the boundaries between the various elements that constitute an individual’s personality: not only rational thought, but also the capacity to experience and respond to human emotions. Who is responsible for the actions, statements, or harms produced by an AI Companion? This dynamic raises legal concerns regarding the fiduciary relationship that may arise between a human user and a machine which, although only apparently sentient, exhibits reactions capable of generating reliance and legitimate expectations that may, under certain circumstances, acquire juridical relevance. The analysis aims to contribute to the emerging debate on whether artificial agents should remain confined within the domain of legal objects or evolve toward a novel category of juridical subjectivity.

Credit scoring is a widespread practice that assigns a score based on certain characteristics or past behaviours, in particular regarding the reliability of debtors to repay loans. In most cases, the scoring is the basis for the decision of credit agencies for the acceptance of loan requests. However, there are still grey areas in which the balance between the transparency owed to the consumers regarding the processing of their financial data and the protection of trade secrets in favour of credit score agencies. Prof. Faletti and Dr Gallese will start their analysis from the guidelines of the CJEU and the national courts regarding credit scoring, following the SCHUFA decision (C-26/22 and C-64/22), and propose some reflections on the application of the art. 22 GDPR, taking into account not only the AI Act but also the most recent indications regarding the transparency requirements indicated by the Dun and Bradstreet Austria (C-203/22).