Submission: Human Rights and Technology
Allens Hub Director, Lyria Bennett Moses and Hub member Genna Churches along with Andrew Ray and Bridie Adams law students from the ANU College of Law and researchers at the National Judicial College of Australia, prepared a submission in response to the Australian Human Rights Commission discussion paper, ‘Human Rights and Technology’ released in December 2019.
A copy of the submission can be found here
The submission provides eight recommendations in response to the questions and proposals in the discussion paper:
1. consider the human rights task as part of a broader law reform project, drawing lessons from the past particularly as to methodology in the context of public engagement;
2. define scope by reference to clear terminology that captures areas of concern better than “artificial intelligence” – specific questions that arise, including the possibility of restrictions or regulations, should be analysed contextually;
3. encourage research into improving AI-informed decision-making through amending the priorities of existing Australian Research Council programs, as opposed to a rebuttable presumption that decisions made by AI-informed decision-making systems are unlawful if appropriate reasons are not provided;
4. a broad approach should be taken in assessing the legality of AI-informed decisions rather than focusing on technical information;
5. strengthen existing freedom of information laws to promote release of information concerning AI-informed government decision-making by relaxing exemptions available to government departments and agencies;
6. reconsideration of a decision should be made by humans in the event of a challenge to the original decision made through an AI-informed process;
7. human involvement in AI-informed decision-making should be scaled based on the context and potential impact of the decision; and
8. the use of AI facial recognition technology by law enforcement agencies should be subject to a moratorium until larger issues can be resolved.