Human rights and freedoms in a situation of abuse of the use of AI technologies: how did it happen that AI became a threat to civil society?




Kuleshova, Anna Viktorovna
PhD in Sociology, Head of Publishing Department in VCIOM, Chairman of Council of Scientific Publication Ethics, Member of the RAS Commission on Combating the Falsification of Scientific Research, Moscow, Russia
kuleshovaav@gmail.com


Abstract
Speaking about digitalization and its impact on the human information field, it is impossible not to touch on the topic of intentional interference in personal information space. We all see how quickly and on a large scale conflicts related to the emergence of the "new ethics" flare up and spread. This is Black Lives Matter, and the scandal around the statements of the writer Rowling, and much more. At the same time, some aspects of the "new ethics" penetrate into very unexpected areas. For example, in IT, there has traditionally been terminology associated with Black/White lists (lists of prohibitions and permissions), Master-Slave architecture (when one service is the master, managing, and the second is subordinate, secondary). Now it suddenly turned out that they urgently need to be replaced due to their new reading by adherents of the "new ethics". And if earlier each of the people / communities could independently determine for themselves which of the newfangled trends to accept and which to ignore, then in connection with the transfer of communication and communications into unified digital environments (social networks, etc.), the possibility of large-scale censorship appeared. According to
he decision of a dozen of the largest companies, it is permissible to "ban" (strictly censor) any unwanted ideas and topics for discussion. That is, the space in which we can negotiate and find a common language (and this is almost always a text space) turns out to be formatted to fit the vision of a narrow group of decision makers in relation to other people. Topics that are undesirable for one reason or another are "erased" completely from the digital space, sometimes together with the digital subjects themselves (deleting accounts). Moreover, it should be understood that not only public text statements, but also any images can be subjected to such censorship (for example, works of art concerning eroticism and death are regularly banned on Facebook), audio and video materials (not only public, but also within the framework of private correspondence). The authoritarian rulers of the past could only dream of such tools for controlling ideas.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, law, ethics