“ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS – AN INHERENT CONFLICT”

Introduction On May 11, 1997, and IBM (International Business Machines) computer programme called IBM Deep Blue (developed by researchers of Carnegie Mellon University) defeated the world champion of chess, Garry Kasparov after a six-game match: two wins for IBM Deep Blue, one for the champion and three draws. The champion did not accept the defeat, under the assumption that a machine could never compute such intelligent strategies and accused scientists of rigging the match. This victory started the discussion on the primacy of the human mind over devices. Chess had long been considered a strategic endeavour representing the peak of human cunning, strategy and intelligence; this upset was groundbreaking. Nowadays, programs capable of playing chess are so powerful that they are no longer used against human adversaries, but against computers. This is what we call Artificial Intelligence or AI; a kind of intelligence that was born in the 1950s and has proven to be an integral part of the digital revolution. This revolution has been part of a myriad of social transformations. The concept of artificial intelligence has been elevated from the realm of science fiction to discussions in the highest circles of academia, industry and government. However, experts have only just begun to look at the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights, and so far they do not even seem to agree on what the term means. Predictive, classifying, and profiling algorithms of a wide range of complexity, from decision trees to deep neural networks are increasingly impacting our lives as individuals and societies. Companies and governments seize on the promise of artificial intelligence to provide data-driven, efficient, automatic decisions in domains as diverse as human resources, policing, credit scoring, insurance pricing, healthcare, and many more. However, an algorithm as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is simply “[a] process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.” The interaction and interdependence of algorithms, including artificial intelligence or machine-learning algorithms, and big data have enabled their deployment in many key areas of decision-making, such that many functions traditionally carried out by humans have become increasingly automated. For example, algorithms are used to: assist in sentencing and parole decisions; predict crime ‘hotspots’ to allocate police resources;