Evaluating the Legal Accountability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Bangladesh: Beyond Regulatory Frameworks

Evaluating the Legal Accountability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Bangladesh: Beyond Regulatory Frameworks

The rapid proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across sectors poses significant legal, ethical, and regulatory challenges, especially in emerging economies like Bangladesh. Despite increasing AI deployment in public and private domains, Bangladesh currently lacks a dedicated legal framework governing AI-related liabilities and data governance. This paper investigates the extent to which Bangladesh's existing legal instruments can accommodate AI-specific harms and proposes actionable regulatory pathways. Owing to the widespread use of AI in recent times, Bangladesh has experienced infringements on privacy, safety, and security, in addition to the advantages it offers. The legislators in Bangladesh are currently undecided on whether to implement a new legal framework for AI or adopt a wait-and-see approach by studying the experiences of other nations, such as the USA and the UK. Hence, the primary aim of this research is to address the question: To what extent can existing legal principles in Bangladesh accommodate or be adapted to establish accountability for decisions made by AI systems? This paper employs a mixed-methods approach, combining doctrinal legal analysis with a quantitative empirical survey, to investigate the necessity and framework for regulating AI in Bangladesh. This study initially examines the exploration of many challenges and issues related to its implementation. This paper makes comparison between Bangladesh and others, such as the EU, China, the USA, and the UK in AI regulation. An extensive public survey was undertaken with 110 participants regarding the necessity of adopting regulations on AI. The results underscore widespread public support for AI-specific regulation, especially concerning transparency, job displacement, discrimination, and data misuse. The study offers policy recommendations for a tailored, risk-based, and ethically grounded regulatory framework, emphasizing multi-stakeholder collaboration and alignment with international best practices. This research contributes to the broader discourse on AI by offering a foundational blueprint for responsible AI regulation in Bangladesh.