Surveillance, Power and Accountable AI Systems: What Can We Do To Craft an AI Future that Works for Everyone?

Jeanna Matthews

Clarkson University, USA

Abstract

Increasingly big decisions about the lives of individuals are being made in a partnership between human decision makers and computer systems. Algorithmically moderated platforms are making profound impacts on our personal and public relationships such as how we find a job, how we get our
news, how we drive from place to place, sometimes even how we find a spouse. This is fundamentally changing the landscape of our societal decision-making processes – from hiring decisions, to decisions about news amplification, to criminal justice decisions – and making them vulnerable to new types of attacks and influences. Many times we tell ourselves and others that the AI-enabled future is going to be great for everyone when it is much more likely that there will be winners and losers as increased surveillance and automation shift the power dynamics in society. If we want to craft an AI future that really does work for everyone, we need to empower individuals to advocate for their rights and interests and provide the transparency they need to see when those rights and interests are threatened.