Adam Harkens (University of Birmingham) presentation titled "Law as ‘Protection’: Why Algorithmic Decision-Making Matters to Lawyers and the Law" on October 28, 10:00 am.

 

Decision-making practices – in both the public and private sector – are increasingly being informed, altered, and automated by algorithmic decision-making (ADM) tools constructed using machine learning techniques. Applications range from predictive advertisement, automated fraud detection, facial recognition, and individual risk assessment for the purposes of informing criminal justice decision making, among more.
Journalism, academic scholarship, and a range of high-profile legal cases have drawn significant attention to the range of dangers and harms associated with the use of these tools: including the potential for biased decision-making and the problems this generates for fairness, a lack of transparency in decision-making, and concerns regarding the potential for automation bias. Accordingly, a number of legislative responses have sought to tackle the challenges posed by these dangers. This includes most notably, the European Commission’s recently proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA), which seeks to introduce legally enforceable standards for both the development and deployment of algorithmic tools within the European Union – wherein ‘AI systems’ are identified and organised by categories of ‘risk’.
Using the law in such a way brings its purpose into stark focus: why is it important that there is a legal response to these dangers? How should we be using the law to respond? And how should we determine what constitutes a ‘successful’ legal response? This talk will explore the crucial role which law (both its rules and principles) plays in protecting individuals against the potential harms of algorithmic decision-making – whose perspective is often at risk of being lost in larger governance debates. For example, despite the potential for ADM tools to generate harm(s) to the fundamental rights of individuals being front and centre of the rationale for the introduction of the AIA, the proposal itself has failed to introduce rights or remedies by which to seek redress for such occurrences. This presentation will discuss a number of ADM tools currently or recently used in practice, in addition to a number of legal responses to their use. In doing so, it will make the case for the need for interdisciplinary understandings of ‘law as protection’ in order to safeguard against the significant number of potential harms that can arise from the use of ADM tools.

 

The seminar will be broadcasted via Zoom application. Participation is subject to prior registration. The Zoom link of the event will be sent to registered participants via email. Register here!