AI in Human Rights

AI tools can be helpful in the fight against human rights issues such as terrorism and human trafficking. On the flip side, those tools rely on datasets to build the models. As those databases often contain personal data, it’s important to question how privacy rights are handled so that human rights are respected, especially for data from already marginalised groups to ensure they are not being racially profiled.

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AI in immigration can lead to ‘serious human right breaches’

This video refers to a report from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab that raises concerns that the handling of private data by AI for immigration purposes could breach human rights. As AI tools are trained using datasets, before implementing those tools that target marginalized populations, we need to answer questions such as: Where does […]

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Apprise: Using AI to unmask situations of forced labour and human trafficking

The creators of the Apprise app share how they created a system assist workers in Thailand to avoid vulnerable situations. Forced labour exploiters continually tweak and refine their own practices of exploitation, in response to changing policies and practices of inspections.The article showcases efforts to create AI tools that predict changing patterns of human exploitation. […]

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AI can be sexist and racist — it’s time to make it fair

Computer scientists must identify sources of bias, de-bias training data and develop artificial-intelligence algorithms that are robust to skews in the data. The article raises the challenge of defining fairness when building databases. For example, should the data be representative of the world as it is, or of a world that many would aspire to? […]

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Establishing an AI code of ethics will be harder than people think

Over the past six years, the New York City police department has compiled a massive database containing the names and personal details of at least 17,500 individuals it believes to be involved in criminal gangs. The effort has already been criticized by civil rights activists who say it is inaccurat… The New York police department has […]

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Facial recognition could stop terrorists before they act

In their zeal and earnest desire to protect individual privacy, policymakers run the risk of stifling innovation. The author makes the case that using facial recognition to prevent terrorism is justified as our world is becoming more dangerous every day; hence, policymakers should err on the side of public safety.

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