Start your journey towards understanding the impact that AI systems may already be having on your life, rights and work.
By the end of this learning package, you will:
- Have foundational knowledge of how AI systems function;
- Understand better the capabilities and constraints of AI systems;
- Have gained insights into the involvement of the private sector in the design, development, and deployment of AI systems;
- Be familiarised with the overlapping issues between socio-political and human rights considerations in this context.
The aim of this first package of ECNL’s AI learning center is to provide a straightforward introduction to the basic elements of AI for a non-tech audience, as well as to explain AI’s impact on socio-political and human rights, with a focus on civic space.
This initial package is therefore designed to help you gain a general understanding which you can then build on as you explore the upcoming modules, which are more issue-based (e.g. highlighting the impact of surveillance technology on our civic freedoms) and/or community-specific (e.g. impact of AI on marginalised groups).
1. In this lecture, organised as part of ECNL’s educational series on AI and human rights, McKane Andrus introduces the basics of how AI systems function. He emphasises the importance of questioning and analysing data used for training and deploying the system (“input”) and the ultimate goal of the system (“output”).
2. Elements of AI by Reaktor and the University of Helsinki is a free online course that teaches the basics of AI and explains its capabilities and limitations. The modules combine theory with practical exercises and can be completed at the participant’s own pace. We especially recommend Part 1 (“Introduction to AI”) and chapters 1 (“What is AI?”) and 4 (“Machine Learning”).
3. A People’s Guide to AI by Mimi Onuoha and Mother Cyborg is a comprehensive workbook that explains the basics of AI (concepts, definitions, methods, etc.) from a socio-technical standpoint, introducing concepts such as fairness and disparate impact.
The following three 10-minute lectures were organised as part of ECNL’s educational series on AI and human rights and delve into different aspects of design and development and the lifecycle of AI systems.
1. The lifecycle of an AI system within the broader ecosystem, from supply chains, design and development to sales, deployment and monitoring. Lecturer: Andrew Strait.
2. The racist, sexist, colonial and other discriminatory and oppressive systems within which AI technologies are designed, developed and deployed. Lecturer: Aurum Linh.
3. The role of the private sector in designing, developing and deploying AI systems and related issues such as lack of transparency, regulation, corporate impunity and lobbying, as well as the importance of meaningful stakeholder participation. Lecturer: Marlena Wisniak.
In addition
4. A blog post, in which ECNL highlights the importance of including broader civil society, especially marginalised communities, and explains how the impact of AI systems on these groups is overlooked all too often. This tendency exacerbates systemic problems and inequalities that already exist.
5. During RightsCon 2021, Safiya Umoja Noble and Sasha Costanza-Chock, in conversation with Thenmozhi Soundararajan, discussed algorithmic justice, platform accountability, and intersectional approaches to movement building and advocacy in digital spaces.
7. Data Capitalism is an interactive website, based on prior reports by Data For Black Lives and Demos, introducing the concept of data capitalism and looking at data-driven systems against the backdrop of capitalism, institutional racism, and resistance of communities.
8. This Boston Review places AI systems within a social and historical framework rooted in colonialism, and proposes a way forward by “decolonising AI.” (Shakir Mohamed, William Isaac, Marie-Therese Png)
9. Developed by the AI Now Institute (Amba Kak and Noopur Raval), the New AI Lexicon is a collaborative project, featuring essays with new definitions, analyses and proposals for AI-related terminology.
10. The Indivisible AI podcast, hosted by Aaina Agarwal, explores current issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human rights.
11. This short explainer by EDRi details how the growing use of AI in a number of areas of public life may pose risks for marginalised groups, equality, justice and fundamental rights.
