The level of prudence and care expected of an actor, the violation of which characterises the fault or defect grounding liability.
The standard of care designates the benchmark of prudent and careful conduct that an actor is required to observe, and the breach of which allows liability to be established. In the field of artificial intelligence, the withdrawal of the directive dedicated to AI liability has left a void that the AI Act indirectly fills. For want of a dedicated instrument, the regulation's obligations, documented risk management, data quality, traceability and human oversight, tend to become the reference standard of care. A compliant system will be deemed to offer the safety legitimately expected, while a breach will supply the operative fact of a defect under the Product Liability Directive or of a fault under national laws. Compliance and liability, conceived as two distinct pillars, thus merge, and the standard of care also becomes the natural criterion for insurance underwriting.
An AI deployer who neglects the human oversight required by the AI Act breaches the standard of care, which may suffice to characterise a fault before a national court.
devoir de diligence, duty of care