Advancing Human Rights in the Age of AI and the Digital Society

Lorna McGregor, University of Essex, UK,
Abstract: The use of new and emerging technologies to support or make decisions carries significant implications for human rights, including but beyond the right to privacy. Depending on the nature of the decision at issue, the integration of new and emerging technologies within decision-making processes can have far reaching consequences for rights such as the right to health, education, liberty, and freedom of opinion and expression. In this talk, I draw on the work of the interdisciplinary ESRC Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project to show how the embedding of human rights principles from the conception and design phases to deployment can complement and extend ethical principles by embedding safeguards and oversight systems to prevent and protect against harm, including in the face of uncertainty of how new and emerging technologies will operate in the real world. The talk includes discussion of whether and when red-lines should be drawn in the development and deployment of new and emerging technologies as well the challenges arising from human-machine interaction.