Download This PaperAI and the Global South: Designing for Other Worlds
Forthcoming in Markus D. Dubber, Frank Pasquale, and Sunit Das (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI, Oxford University Press
15 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2019 Last revised: 20 Jul 2019
Date Written: June 9, 2019
Abstract
This chapter is about the ways in which AI affects, and will continue to affect, the Global South. It highlights why the design and deployment of AI in the South should concern us.
Towards this, it discusses what is meant by the South. The term has a history connected with the ‘Third World’ and has referred to countries that share post-colonial history and certain development goals. However scholars have expanded on, and refined, it to include different kinds of marginal, disenfranchised populations such that the South is now a plural concept - there are Souths.
The risks of the ways in which AI affects Southern populations include concerns of discrimination, bias, oppression, exclusion and bad design. These can be exacerbated in the context of vulnerable populations, especially those without access to human rights law or institutional remedies. This Chapter outlines these risks as well as the international human rights law that is applicable. It argues that a human rights-centric, inclusive, empowering context-driven approach is necessary.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Discrimination, Bias, Databases, Global South, South, Third World, Developing Countries, Privacy, Human Rights, Equality, Development, Social Security, Right to Work
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