Share these talks and lectures with your colleagues
Invite colleaguesResearch paper
Communicating with technology, computers and artificial intelligence: Are human rights and privacy being neglected?
Journal of Data Protection & Privacy,
3
(4),
363-375
(2020)
Abstract
The paper explores some of the problems of communicating with information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI), and the dilemma encountered by professional practitioners and the general public. Negative aspects of the new technology, including breaches of privacy, are too often not taken into consideration. Technology can become an oppressive force that targets poor people. Voluntary regulation by privately owned internet providers fails to protect human rights. AI has produced algorithms that contain unintended prejudicial biases. An uncritical acceptance of IT and AI may lead to more inequality in our society. Impact assessments for introducing new technology are needed. Professional practitioners and professional bodies need to recognise not only the benefits of the new technology but also its drawbacks. Our society resists overt control and censorship but needs to find a consensus about how to protect public freedom.
Keywords: communication; professional practice; information technology; artificial intelligence; ethics; human rights; bias; risks
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Patricia Higham was born in the United States and is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She completed her social work training in the United Kingdom and became Professor of Social Work at Nottingham Trent University. Her PhD thesis studied the relationships of older people in residential care homes. More recently, she became a qualified counsellor, and she currently volunteers one day per week at a charity for women who experience abuse. She is interested in quality, the impact of power and person-centred interventions.
