Can consent truly be considered voluntary when artificial intelligence can predict, influence and manipulate the way we make decisions?
In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, hosts Isheta Boruah and Sania Bafna welcome Dr. Stefano Faraoni, Assistant Professor of Law at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, and author of Contract Law and Computational Manipulation: AI and Consent in the Age of Hypernudging (Routledge).
The conversation examines how AI-driven computational manipulation, hypernudging and second-generation dark patterns are challenging traditional ideas of consent, contractual autonomy and individual choice.
Key topics explored:
• Computational manipulation and its distinction from ordinary persuasion, personalised advertising and conventional dark patterns.
• AI-driven hyper-personalisation and its impact on informed consent and contractual autonomy.
• Whether consent to copyright licences, software licences and IP transactions can remain genuinely autonomous.
• Generative AI, creators’ rights and the contractual exploitation of creative works.
• The distinction between copyright consent and contractual consent.
• Whether existing contract law and consumer protection frameworks adequately address AI-enabled manipulation.
• The intersection of intellectual property law and technologies that enable behavioural manipulation.
• A comparative examination of English and Italian law.
• Article 5 of the EU AI Act and the regulatory divergence between the EU and UK.
• The future of consent across intellectual property, data protection and digital identity.
As AI increasingly shapes the way individuals interact with digital platforms and enter into agreements, this discussion asks an important question: Are our existing legal frameworks equipped to protect human autonomy in the age of computational manipulation?
Tune in for a conversation at the intersection of AI, intellectual property, contract law and the future of digital rights.
