Book excerpt: This book focuses on the legal regulation, mainly from an international law perspective, of autonomous artificial intelligence systems, of their creations, as well as of the interaction of human and artificial intelligence. It examines critical questions regarding both the ontology of autonomous AI systems and the legal implications: what constitutes an autonomous AI system and what are its unique characteristics? How do they interact with humans? What would be the implications of combined artificial and human intelligence? It also explores potentially the most important questions: what are the implications of these developments for collective security –from both a state-centered and a human perspective, as well as for legal systems? Why is international law better positioned to make such determinations and to create a universal framework for this new type of legal personality? How can the matrix of obligations and rights of this new legal personality be construed and what would be the repercussions for the international community? In order to address these questions, the book discusses cognitive aspects embedded in the framework of law, offering insights based on both de lege lata and de lege ferenda perspectives.