What is the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the relationship between citizens and governments? For who and why is this technology being used? How does the deployment of AI affect power relations in policymaking and citizens’ trust in democratic institutions? These are some of the fundamental questions that prompted me to write this article. Let’s explore the components of AI that deal with governance, human rights, and justice.
While the origins of e-democracy and e-participation can be traced back to the end of the twentieth century, the increasing use of smartphones and mobile applications by citizens, as well as the increased capacity of public administrations to analyze big data, have enabled the emergence of new approaches. Online voting, online opinion polls, online town hall meetings, and online discussion lists of the 1990s and early 2000s have evolved into new generations of policy-making tactics and tools, enabled by the most recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Online platforms, advanced simulation websites, and serious gaming tools are progressively used on a larger scale to engage citizens, collect their opinions, and involve them in policy processes. Here’s a small instance of AI being a real tool for assisting governance,
Case: India
In the UN E-government Survey 2022, three countries with underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure of Rwanda, India, and Ecuador have distinguished themselves for their effectiveness in enhancing the delivery of inclusive, user-centric online services.
Among them India, just by using the My Gov smartphone app can gather data from inaccessible locations all around the nation and respond to pertinent issues. A total of 1,250 sign language interpreters have been educated through this initiative, and 95 federal and 588 state government websites are now accessible to people with impairments. Farmers are informed about crop prices thanks to the AgriMarket app, which also works to deter them from holding distress sales. Using mobile GPS, farmers may find out crop price information for markets within a 50-kilometer radius. This has reached more than 80 million farm families to date.
MyGov is a platform for encouraging and facilitating public engagement in decision-making. The platform has 24.5 million registered users and offers a variety of e-participation tools to help people create online communities and participate in polls, surveys, blogs, and debates about certain themes. In 2021 and 2022, the government shared its digital transformation agenda with 9.5 million people. India also enabled digital technology-based programs like Aadhar expansion, Common Services Centres, Direct Benefit Transfer, UMANG services, and so on have dominated the country’s e-governance paradigm. PM-Kisan, e-NAM, Ayushman Bharat, e-hospital, e-Pathshala, SWAYAM, SWAYAM PRABHA, and other e-government initiatives have improved governance in rural areas. AI systems can be used to keep track of development initiatives. In a toilet construction program, for example, AI software can detect the position and physical status of the toilets, weeding out inappropriate construction or usage in seconds.
Role of AI in Primary Sector Governance: India
AI systems are used in agriculture for assisting farmers in India to increase output.
1. Farmers can use accessible data on weather, groundwater, soil conditions, and cropping patterns to gain practical advice on when and how to sow, fertilize, irrigate, and harvest. Even drone sprinklers are being introduced to make the work easy.
AI deployment on a large scale has the potential to reduce energy losses. Renewable energy generators can improve grid load management and efficiency by utilizing AI. This would eventually make renewable energy more cost-effective. Increased e-governance can result from the deployment of AI technologies.
2. AI also assists people to reach to government and access to public data for ensuring transparency in e-governance.
3. It can be used in the Public Distribution sector for allotment of rations and security checks so that people don’t scam with limited rations in villages.
4. AI has been an important tool for digital wallets, biometric detections, GPS tracking, and many more activities that connect people with governance in an economic and individual place.
5. E-governance also ensures the safety and security of the public along with transparency, hence institutions like NITI Ayog, CBI, Police force, State / Union ministries, etc have their own portals driven by AI data collection and automated chatbots.
The above example from Indian governance and the smart use of AI is indeed not limited but developing day by day. There are several other countries that have developed many better ways to use AI in distinct sectors of their economy.
AI And Human Society
The potential human rights impact of the use of AI to counter terrorism online should be acknowledged. Human rights impact assessments should be carried out in advance of deploying any tools and the legality, proportionality, and necessity of their use should be assessed on a regular and ongoing basis throughout the entire lifecycle of the AI tool.
National laws and policies defining and governing the use of AI tools to counter terrorism online should be implemented to address the risk of such tools being misused, for example, to persecute legitimate social movements, civil society organizations, and journalists, as well as to minimize the risk of function creep. In order to identify any potential blind spots in the design, development, and implementation of automated systems, a multi-stakeholder approach with regular feedback loops should be used when using AI to tackle terrorism online.
Thorough consideration should be given to how AI-enabled technology can be used to augment human analysts as opposed to replacing them or their functions. Automated decision-making should not be encouraged. Analysis and conclusions reached on the basis of AI systems should always be reviewed by a trained human, who should make the final determination. All personnel working with AI-based systems should understand the system and training should be provided to personnel on technical and legal aspects of the use of the tools, as well as possible associated human rights risks. Oversight mechanisms should be established and equipped with sufficient technical expertise to be able to understand and appropriately assess the use of AI. These oversight mechanisms should regularly assess each instance of the use of AI systems, the legality, proportionality, and necessity of their use, and the quality of the outcomes they produce. Institutional checks and balances should be guided by transparent policies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can have, and already is having, a profound impact on our society, from healthcare, agriculture, and industry to financial services and education. However, as the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated in his 2018 Strategy on New Technologies, “While these technologies hold great promise, they are not risk-free, and some inspire anxiety and even fear. They can be used to malicious ends or have unintended negative consequences”.
AI exemplifies this paradox maybe more than any other developing technology today. Hence, any investigation into the use of AI-enabled technologies must always be accompanied by attempts to prevent any violations of human rights. Many international and regional organizations, national governments, and civil society organizations have been working on projects to establish ethical principles for the use of AI, as well as the formation of proto-legal frameworks.
e-participation projects are sometimes based on a certain fetishism of functionalities without an a priori needs assessment. What is more, initiatives can be used as a form of veiled rhetoric or as a political marketing strategy for politicians. Many online citizen consultations use closed-source or proprietary code platforms with very little or no feedback about the result of the participation. Furthermore, behind the participatory processes, other power structures can be hidden (Pickard, 2008) acting in the interest of small groups. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, many citizens lack critical awareness regarding the type of technology used, the actors developing and managing the platform, the actors supporting the initiative, the transparency and accountability of data processing, and questions of cybersecurity and data privacy.
Exploring AI and Justice
Did you know AI can help to mark out the bad guys in the community?
An approach where AI is applied to assist the domain of criminal justice where each application, algorithms are automating portions of analytical work that helps to provide human decision-makers an input. AI is widely known for supporting forensic studies and research along with several other arenas related to justice. In local, state, and federal levels of government and across agencies, including law enforcement and the judiciary, AI applications are used to predict where crime is likely to occur to improve the allocation of law enforcement resources, assist with suspect identification using facial recognition technology, and assess the risk for reoffending when determining how long to sentence individuals convicted of a crime. Apart from that AI can also be used at many points in the criminal justice process, from pre-arrest and booking to sentencing and custodial supervision, as the figure below shows. Fairness and demographic biases addressed privacy and human rights issues; ensuring machine learning accuracy and openness.
While the early developments of e-democracy and e-participation can be traced back to the end of the 20th century, the growing adoption of smartphones and mobile applications by citizens, and the increased capacity of public administrations to analyze big data, have enabled the emergence of new approaches.
Can AI Defend Human Rights?
Now, artificial intelligence is used for a variety of works everyday implementations including facial recognition software in our 0hones or offices, online shopping algorithms, search engines like Google, digital assistants like Siri and Alexa, translation services, automated safety functions on cars (and the promised self-driving cars of the future), cybersecurity, airport body scanning security, poker playing strategy, and fighting disinformation on social media, among others. Further, Artificial General Intelligence ( AGI ) is the newest in the market that can solve any problem instead of particular orders or problems in a particular sphere/specialization, for example – OpenAI, Gato, deepmind2022.
National laws and policies defining and regulating the use of AI tools to combat terrorism online should be put in place, among other things to address the risk that these tools will be misapplied, such as to persecute legitimate social movements, civil society organizations, and journalists, as well as to reduce the risk of function. Combating internet terrorism with the help of AI may have an influence on human rights. Prior to the deployment of any tools, human rights impact analyses should be performed, and throughout the whole lifecycle of the AI tool, regular and ongoing assessments of the legality, proportionality, and need of their use should be made. A multi-stakeholder strategy with frequent feedback loops should be adopted in order to make sure that any potential blind spots in the design, development, and deployment of automated systems are recognized while using AI to combat terrorism online.
There are several applications BeSafe, Sister, Red Panic Button, Letstrack, and more AI-based apps that have been supporting the security of females in the community or SOS signals for help. Such applications may be used in two ways: they can use the phone’s GPS system or they can utilize the GPS system of the main device to capture location. The goal of such apps is to be useful as portable gadgets for women’s and girls’ protection. A Women’s Safety App for Mobile Devices People in the proposed system can inform selected contacts that they are in danger and reveal their location with the click of a single button. The name and phone number of the person to be called in an emergency are required by the personal safety application. Users can add numerous people to the list of emergency contacts. In the event of an emergency, these are the persons who will receive notifications via SMS.
Moreover, policymakers are well acquainted with the use of AI these days, be it ChatGPT or Microsoft. So you know it’s just not limited to Instagram and threads!