The proposed AI Act comes amid growing concern, in Europe and beyond, about how AI and other forms of algorithmic decision-making are increasingly woven into the social safety net, affecting social and economic rights. The former UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and academics and civil society groups, have warned against the use of hi-tech tools to deny or limit access to life-saving benefits and other social services, at a time when these programmes are a critical bulwark against growing poverty and income inequality.
While the EU regulation broadly acknowledges these risks, it does not meaningfully protect people’s rights to social security and an adequate standard of living. In particular, its narrow safeguards neglect how existing inequities and failures to adequately protect rights shape the design of automated systems, and become embedded by them.
From ‘How the EU’s Flawed Artificial Intelligence Regulation Endangers the Social Safety Net: Questions and Answers’, Human Rights Watch