Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights: Opportunities & Risks

63 Pages Posted: 25 Oct 2018

See all articles by Filippo A. Raso

Filippo A. Raso

Harvard Law School

Hannah Hilligoss

Harvard University, Law School, Students ; Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Vivek Krishnamurthy

Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society; University of Ottawa - Common Law Section; University of Ottawa - Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC); Harvard University - Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

Christopher Bavitz

Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Levin Kim

Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Date Written: September 25, 2018

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is changing the world before our eyes. The promise of AI to improve our lives is enormous. AI-based systems are already outperforming medical specialists in diagnosing certain diseases, while the use of AI in the financial system is expanding access to credit to borrowers that were once passed by. Yet AI also has downsides that dampen its considerable promise. AI-based systems impact the right to privacy since they depend on the collection and use of vast quantities of data to make predictions which, in numerous cases, have served to perpetuate existing social patterns of bias and discrimination.

These disturbing possibilities have given rise to a movement seeking to embed ethical considerations into the development and deployment of AI. This project, on the other hand, demonstrates the considerable value in using human rights law to evaluate and address the complex impacts of AI on society. Human rights law provides an agreed set of norms and a shared language and institutional infrastructure for helping to ensure that the promises of AI are met and its greatest perils are avoided.

Our project seeks to advance the emerging conversation on AI and human rights by evaluating the human rights impacts of six current uses of AI. Our framework recognizes that AI systems are not being deployed against a blank slate, but rather against the backdrop of social conditions that have complex pre-existing human rights impacts of their own.

By digging deep into current AI implementations, we see how they impact the full range of human rights guaranteed by international law, privacy chief among them. We also gain insight into the unequal distribution of the positive and negative impacts of AI on human rights throughout society, and begin to explore the power of the human rights framework to address these disparate impacts.

Suggested Citation

Raso, Filippo and Hilligoss, Hannah and Krishnamurthy, Vivek and Krishnamurthy, Vivek and Bavitz, Christopher and Kim, Levin Yerin, Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights: Opportunities & Risks (September 25, 2018). Berkman Klein Center Research Publication No. 2018-6, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3259344 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3259344

Filippo Raso (Contact Author)

Harvard Law School ( email )

Hannah Hilligoss

Harvard University, Law School, Students ( email )

1563 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society ( email )

Harvard Law School
23 Everett, 2nd Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Vivek Krishnamurthy

Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society ( email )

Harvard Law School
23 Everett, 2nd Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section ( email )

57 Louis Pasteur Street
Ottawa, K1N 6N5
Canada

University of Ottawa - Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) ( email )

University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law - Common Law
57 Louis Pasteur St.
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5
Canada

Harvard University - Carr Center for Human Rights Policy ( email )

Littauer-G-11G
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Christopher Bavitz

Berkman Center for Internet & Society ( email )

Harvard Law School
23 Everett, 2nd Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Levin Yerin Kim

Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society ( email )

Harvard Law School
23 Everett, 2nd Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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