49
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might find their way into society.343 These subjective views might contain personal prejudices that the developers of the AI programs have, which can result in people being unfairly discriminated against.344 Additionally, because AI systems need large quantiles of data in order to have a sufficient knowledge base from which they can make predictions, this data (as a result of limited availability of sufficient data and the manner it was collected and evaluated) may contain bits of information that represent (negatively) one race or gender.345
Once this data is fed into the AI systems, it could result in people from a specific group being unfairly marginalised and discriminated against.346 This does not mean that AI systems need to be boycotted and stopped, but rather that regulatory and legal frameworks should be in place to ensure that this does not happen.347
Another conflict between human rights and AI became evident when the United Nations Special Rapporteur investigated the results of using big data-based decisions when it comes to issues that relate to social security in the United Kingdom.348 The investigation yielded a number of findings, chief among them being that the human rights of poor people are most at risk when it comes to using AI-fuelled automation in issues relating to how the government performs its functions.349
The same investigation conducted by UN Special Rapporteur found that transparency is also an issue when it comes to the application of AI systems by the United Kingdom government.350 In this investigation, Alston is of the view that opacity surrounding the function and purpose of AI systems implemented by the
343 McGregor et alThe Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 12.
344 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 12.
345 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 12.
346 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 12.
347 Council of Europe 2019 https://rm.coe.int/unboxing-artificial-intelligence-10-steps-to-protect- human-rights-reco/1680946e64.
348 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 12.
349 Alston 2018
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23881&LangID=E.
350 Alston 2018
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23881&LangID=E.
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government are a major source of complaints and misunderstanding that arises in society when it comes to the understanding of AI systems.351 In their defence, government organisations claim that the opacity around the functions of AI systems is in the protection of the copyright and the intellectual property of the private companies that are contracted to program and create these systems.352
The right to privacy is another human right that is often infringed upon by AI systems and big data.353 The UDHR states the following with regard to privacy:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.354
The threat to people’s privacy is probably the most controversial part of the discussion of AI and human rights. As a result of seamless integration and communication between the applications that most people use daily, information (some of which can be confidential) is shared easily between these platforms.355 The efficiency of collecting, processing and interpreting people’s information allows the owners of the AI systems privileged insights into people’s lives.356 These insights are usually gathered without the consent of the users of the platforms, making this a direct infringement on people’s right to privacy.357
It goes without saying that the use of AI systems combined with the enabling power of big data can help improve human lives incredibly.358 However, at the same time they pose a huge risk, if not managed correctly, to infringe greatly on the
351 Alston 2018
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23881&LangID=E.
352 Alston 2018
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23881&LangID=E.
353 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 14.
354 A 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
355 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 14.
356 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 14.
357 McGregor et al The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70 – Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Design, Development and Deployment of Artificial Intelligence 14.
358Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age GA res 39/29, UN Doc A/HRC/39/29 (2018) par 1.
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fundamental and most important human rights.359 This prompted the UN and the European Union to adopt a series of resolutions that are geared towards the protection of people’s data privacy. The most notable of these resolutions is the GDPR, which as noted above, is a body of rules that seeks to protect the unwarranted collection and processing of people’s personal digital data.360