Statement on Sept. 2021 OHCHR Artificial Intelligence Report
The AI Team at the Center for International Human Rights is very pleased by the September 15, 2021 publication by the Office of High Commissioner on Human Rights of a report on artificial intelligence risks to privacy and the subsequent call by High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet for a pause on sale and use of AI systems in high risk contexts.
According to the statement, “although the data used to inform and guide AI systems can be faulty, discriminatory, out of date or irrelevant,” nonetheless, “states and businesses alike have often rushed to incorporate AI applications, failing to carry out due diligence” to prevent concrete harms to political and economic rights to citizens around the world guaranteed by the both the UDHR and the ECHR.
The complexity of the data environment that underpins artificial intelligence and its risk to digital citizenship, political rights, economic rights and due process under law are the subject of our work here at the Center for International Human Rights.
We are happy that the High Commissioner has underscored this in addition to her statement before the Council of Europe on September 14, 2021 relative to the recent revelations about the use of Pegasus Spyware that “today’s unprecedented level of surveillance across the globe by state and private actors is incompatible with human rights.”
As we have noted in past white papers, and will continue to elaborate on in our 2021–2022 agenda, the handing off of risk mitigation and harm reduction to private actors (digital platforms and data brokers) is incompatible with states’ obligations and further complicates individuals’ rights to redress in an exceedingly complex digital supply chain.
