The future is now : liberal democracies and the challenge of artificial intelligence

Current technological developments, such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Machine Learning, have a significant impact on multiple – if not all – dimensions of our lives. They are deployed, used, and fed by people in a social, cultural, and political context. They can also be used to change and influence that same context, namely the governmental system, the social dimension, and individuals' rights and liberties in a political regime. This dissertation will entail analyze how these technologies are being deployed in different dimensions of liberal democratic societies This analysis will delve into the dynamic of Big Tech data collection, the challenges posed by algorithmic decision-making tools on democratic institutions and the profound and tacit impact of surveillance technology. It will focus on the major challenges these technological deployments may represent, separately and as a whole, on a human rights and ethical perspective as well as an institutional one. The dissertation aims to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of diverse uses of AI and policy options in the socio-political dimension, instigating awareness and reflection on the paths being built. This reassessment is particularly focused on the possibility of AI as a strengthener and enhancer of liberal democracies, their values, and institutional structures

Degenerate Feedback Loops in Recommender Systems

Machine learning is used extensively in recommender systems deployed in products. The decisions made by these systems can influence user beliefs and preferences which in turn affect the feedback the learning system receives - thus creating a feedback loop. This phenomenon can give rise to the so-called "echo chambers" or "filter bubbles" that have user and societal implications. In this paper, we provide a novel theoretical analysis that examines both the role of user dynamics and the behavior of recommender systems, disentangling the echo chamber from the filter bubble effect. In addition, we offer practical solutions to slow down system degeneracy. Our study contributes toward understanding and developing solutions to commonly cited issues in the complex temporal scenario, an area that is still largely unexplored

Beyond True and False: Fake News and the Digital Epistemic Divide

The massive fact-checking, flagging, and content removal campaigns run by major digital platforms during the 2020 elections and the Covid-19 pandemic did some good. However, they failed to prevent substantial portions of the population from believing that the election was stolen or that vaccinations are dangerous. In this Article, we argue that the reason for the ineffectiveness of truth-based solutions—such as fact-checking— is that they do not reach the heart of the problem. Both scholars and policymakers share the implicit or explicit belief that the rise of digital fake news is harmful mainly because it spreads false information, which lays a rotten groundwork for both individual decisions and collective policy making. While acknowledging the importance of accurate information, we argue that the main problem with fake news is not that it is false. Instead, what is distinctly threatening about digital misinformation is its ability to circumvent and undermine common knowledge-producing institutions including the sciences, courts, medical and other professions, and the media. The fundamental challenge is the fragmentation of our societies into separate epistemic communities. This shakes the factual common ground on which we stand. What does fact-checking matter if twenty percent of the population thinks that the fact-checkers are chronic liars? We call this new reality the Digital Epistemic Divide. Epistemic fragmentation of society is both more fundamental and more dangerous than the harms of false information as such. It is more fundamental because once a society is epistemically fragmented, the lack of trust in common epistemic authorities will inevitably proliferate disagreement over factual beliefs. It is more dangerous because it can exacerbate political polarization. It is one thing to believe that the other side of a political issue holds wrong values and preferences; it is quite another to believe that they are either constantly lying or deeply manipulated. To bridge the digital epistemic divide, we must go beyond truth-based solutions and implement policies to reconstitute societal trust in common epistemic authorities

Computational Transformation of the Public Sphere : Theories and Case Studies

This book is an edited collection of MA research paper on the digital revolution of the public and governance. It covers cyber governance in Finland, and the securitization of cyber security in Finland. It investigates the cases of Brexit, the 2016 US presidental election of Donald Trump, the 2017 presidential election of Volodymyr Zelensky, and Brexit. It examines the environmental concerns of climate change and greenwashing, and the impact of digital communication giving rise to the #MeToo and Incel movements. It considers how digitilization can serve to emancipate women through ride-sharing, and how it leads to the question of robot rights. It considers fake news and algorithmic governance with respect to case studies of the Chinese social credit system, the US FICO credit score, along with Facebook, Twitter, Cambridge Analytica and the European effort to regulate and protect data usage.Non peer reviewe

Computational Transformation of the Public Sphere: Theories and Cases

This book is an edited collection of original research papers on the digital revolution of the public and governance. It covers cyber governance in Finland, and the securitization of cyber security in Finland. It investigates the cases of Brexit, the 2016 US presidential election of Donald Trump, the 2017 presidential election of Volodymyr Zelensky, and Brexit. It examines the environmental concerns of climate change and greenwashing, and the impact of digital communication giving rise to the #MeToo and Incel movements. It considers how digitilization can serve to emancipate women through ride-sharing, and how it leads to the question of robot rights. It considers fake news and algorithmic governance with respect to case studies of the Chinese social credit system, the US FICO credit score, along with Facebook, Twitter, Cambridge Analytica and the European effort to regulate and protect data usage

Computational transformation of the public sphere : theories and case studies

Computational Transformation of the Public Sphere is the organic product of what turned out to be an effective collaboration between MA students and their professor in the Global Politics and Communication program in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, in the Fall of 2019. The course, Philosophy of Politics and Communication, is a gateway course into this MA program. As I had been eager to conduct research on the impact of new digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) on democratic governance, I saw this course as an opportunity to not only share, but also further develop my knowledge of this topic