In this chapter, we are interested in how AI may enhance our well-being – or do the opposite. A defintion of well-being and promotion of core vlaues will be discussed. It will then survey AI technologies and assess whether they enhance or diminish human well-being, using the different meanings of well-being

This Chapter will examine whether the Digital Content Directive (DCD) can sufficiently protect the consumer who concludes contracts through software on AI-driven online platforms (without being directly involved in the contractual process) against certain of the existing risks. More specifically, due to a technical error or some other factor, such contracts may be mistaken or unintended by the human consumer. Moreover, the consumer may end up dealing with an unreliable, fraudulent or even fictitious trader suffering loss as a result. The question arises as to whether the consumer will have a sufficient remedy in these cases, namely an available route to compensation. In this respect, the Digital Content Directive merits examination with the aim of ascertaining whether it responds to this need of the consumers who contract on AI-driven platforms. The main questions in this context will be whether such platforms qualify as ‘digital services’ within the meaning of said Directive and if yes, whether the provisions of the measure are suitably adjusted to the need of the substituted consumer for an available route to compensation in these cases. These questions may also pinpoint to a possible approach towards the liability of marketplaces for the non-conformity of goods and services offered by third party sellers through their systems. As it will be shown, though the DCD does contain tools that could prove useful to consumers in their attempt to claim and receive compensation, its application is not without problems that may prevent this result. Other measures, specifically the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) may offer some help, where the DCD could not do much.

AI-enhanced smart contracts exhibit a high degree of autonomy in their ability to create and execute transactions between and among humans and machines. AI should allow a broader use of of marts contracts in consumer transactions by allowing businesses to satisfy consumer protection law through the coding of smart contracts. AI should be used to advance the principles of fairness and economic efficiency in the drafting and enforcement of smart consumer contracts.

Society needs to influence and mould our expectations so AI is used for the collective good. we should be reluctant to throw away hard (and recently) won consumer rights and values on the altar of technological developments.

There’s a perception that computer science is constantly changing, and in some respects that’s true: There are always new languages, frameworks, and application domains rising up and old ones sinking down. All of this change that we see around us, though, is like the top part of an iceberg. The most visible elements of our field are built upon and supported by a deeper layer of knowledge that’s mostly invisible to the casual observer. This book is about what’s under the water, the fundamental things that make programming possible, even if we don’t see them right away.

Computers have always mixed with art and music. Even in the earliest days of computing, when machines were the size of entire rooms, artists and composers began to harness them to create original works that could only exist in the digital realm. “Generative art” or “algorithmic art” is a term for works created according to a process that evolves with no or limited guidance from a human creator. Rather than directly making choices, the artist instead focuses on the design and initialization of a system that produces the final work. The appeal of algorithmic art lies in its combination of detail, technical complexity, and variation. Generative art frequently incorporates ideas from biology, physics, and mathematics.

The application of AI in judicial decision-making has the potential for both courts and people seeking justice in consumer law contexts. This is especially true for AI assistant systems that help judges by pre-evaluating individual cases. Currently, the application of a human-out-of-the-loop robojudge is unrealistic in Europe as its use would not only be in conflict of fundamental rights enshrined in the ECHR

Chapter analyses whether the Artficial Intelligence Act sufficiently addresses consumers’ interests and how the regulation blends into the existing system of consumer law. It focuses on prohibited practices and how so-called "generative AI systems" should be regulated.

Minecraft is the most popular video game in history. Created by Markus “Notch” Persson using Java, it has sold more than 250 million copies since its first release in 2011. Minecraft is a sandbox-style game with no plot or required goals: Players explore an open three-dimensional world made of cubic blocks, and can mine for resources, craft items, and build. Every Minecraft world is effectively infinite and procedurally generated. Rather than having a fixed map, the game automatically generates new terrain as the player explores the world. The idea of procedurally generated game worlds goes back to some of the earliest computer games, including the highly influential Rogue (1980), which sent the player on a crawl through a brutally difficult random dungeon and inspired an entire genre of successors.