Professor Naomi Goodno, Synthetic Criminal Minds -- Nevada Law Journal (forthcoming)

Professor Naomi Harlin Goodno's article, Synthetic Criminal Minds, (SSRN) will be published in the Nevada Law Journal. The article examines how criminal law should respond when people use generative AI to plan crimes. It introduces the “synthetic proxy,” an AI system that contributes to criminal planning without possessing intent, and proposes that courts use inchoate-crime doctrines to address that planning and sentencing enhancements when offenders complete AI-assisted crimes.

Abstract of Synthetic Criminal Minds

Generative artificial intelligence ("AI") is no longer just a passive tool. It can respond, refine ideas, and help users plan wrongdoing through an ongoing, iterative exchange. This Article argues that when a criminal uses AI to brainstorm, strategize, and plan to carry out a crime, the AI can function almost akin to a synthetic criminal partner. While the AI does not have intent or personhood, it can still provide the kind of cognitive and strategic assistance that conspiracy law has long treated as central to coordinated criminal conduct. To describe this form of AI assisted crime, this Article introduces the novel concept of the "synthetic proxy," an AI actor that mimics the planning and strategic contributions of a co-conspirator. From there, this Article offers a two-part framework. First, it explores how existing doctrines governing inchoate crimes, like conspiracy and attempt, may deter the use of a synthetic proxy in criminal planning before a substantive offense is completed. Second, it argues that once a crime is completed, sentencing enhancements may help address the added danger and advantage that a synthetic proxy gives an offender. In making that case, the Article draws on analogies to firearm and other criminal sentencing enhancements.