The Inheritance of Reason: The Legal Problem of Protecting Memories and Decision-Making Patterns in Personal Cognitive Systems Based on AI

This article examines how Brazilian law may frame, protect, and discipline personal cognitive systems based on artificial intelligence that store persistent memories, recurrent instructions, decision-making patterns, interaction records, and personal assistance functions. It starts from the premise that, when such systems are structured as a functional extension of the holder’s memory, practical identity, and decision-making organization, they cannot be fully reduced either to the generic category of digital assets or to the ordinary framework of personal data protection. The legal problem becomes especially acute in cases of supervening civil incapacity and death of the holder, where patrimonial, existential, succession-related, and informational interests converge. The article adopts a doctrinal and civil-constitutional approach grounded in normative analysis, systematic interpretation, and examination of relevant institutional and judicial materials under Brazilian law. It argues that the Brazilian legal order already contains partial normative bases for the protection of such systems, but in a fragmented and insufficient manner, thus requiring a coordinated reinterpretation of succession law, personality rights, digital law, preventive representation mechanisms, and informational self-determination. As a theoretical contribution, the article proposes that these systems should be internally distinguished into at least three legally relevant layers: transmissible patrimonial elements, existentially protected elements, and persistent instructional elements capable of sustaining practical continuity in situations of incapacity or death. The conclusion defends interpretive criteria for custody, access, transmission, restriction, and termination of such systems, with a view to protecting the holder’s will, privacy, and the legitimate interests of third parties