PROFILE · Safeguarding Equality in the European Algorithmic Society: Tackling Discrimination in Algorithmic Profiling through EU Equality Law

Safeguarding Equality in the European Algorithmic Society: Tackling Discrimination in Algorithmic Profiling through EU Equality Law

As the number and reach of artificial intelligence (AI) applications are rapidly growing, empirical evidence and global awareness of the systemic risks of discrimination linked to these technologies have increased over the past years, often signaled by the keyword ‘algorithmic bias’. Big data and machine learning techniques feed into algorithmic profiling and predictive analytics systems that support an increasing number of decisions in key aspects of life such as the labour market, education, healthcare, housing, credit, etc. Algorithmic systems thereby condition life opportunities, affect the distribution of valuable goods and opportunities and create in- and exclusion. Through the prism of these technologies, individuals and social groups become algorithmic subjects classified based on assembled data fragments along moving and cryptic lines of differentiation. Their preferences, habits and behaviors, but also their social membership, status, gender or cultural affiliation inform algorithmic clustering that freezes identities and exacerbates differences. Despite the apparent fluidity of algorithmic clusters and the ability of machine learning systems to continuously adapt to changing environments, structural inequalities remain a remarkably stable fixture of algorithmic reconfigurations. Decisions mediated by machines enforce a form of algorithmic determinism that validates the discriminatory status quo and exacerbates systemic discrimination. PROFILE has explored the role of law, and in particular EU equality law, in confronting these issues. Its overarching objective was to identify the key legal challenges linked to addressing algorithmic discrimination and to assess how the legal framework for equality protection in the European Union can adequately address machine-mediated inequalities. PROFILE has addressed the problem through three central inquiries: 1) How does algorithmic discrimination differ from human discrimination? 2) How do these new forms of technology-driven discrimination disrupt and challenge the anti-discrimination legal framework in place in the EU? 3) What regulatory solutions can be proposed within and outside EU anti-discrimination law in order to efficiently remedy algorithmic discrimination?

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз