Artificial intelligence and human rights: Between law and ethics
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X20981566 |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| Author | Giovanni Sartor |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Artificial intelligence
and human rights: Between
law and ethics
Giovanni Sartor*
Abstract
The ethics and law of AI address the same domain, namely, the present and future impacts of AI on
individuals, society, and the environment. Both are meant to provide normative guidance, pro-
posing rules and values on which basis to govern human action and determine the constrains,
structures and functions of AI-enabled socio-technical systems. This article examines the way in
which AI is addressed by ethical and legal rules, principles and arguments. It considers the extent to
which the demands of law and ethics may pull in different directions or rather overlap, and
examines how they can be coordinated, while remaining in a productive dialectical tension. In
particular, it argues that human/fundamental rights and social values are central to both ethics and
law. Even though they can be framed in different ways, they can provide a useful normative ref-
erence for linking ethics and law in addressing the normative issues arising in connection with AI.
Keywords
Artificial intelligence, human rights, ethics, regulation, interest theory, will theory, face recognition
1. Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are populating the human and social world in multiple ways:
industrial robots in factories, service robots in houses and healthcare facilities, autonomous vehi-
cles and unmanned aircraft in transportation, autonomous electronic agents in e-commerce and
finance, autonomous weapons in the military, intelligent communicating devices embedded in
every environment. AI has become a most powerful driver of social transformation: it is changing
the economy, affecting politics and reshaping citizens’ lives and interactions; it increases oppor-
tunities and risks in ways that are of the greatest social and legal importance.
* European University Institute, Via della Badia dei Roccettini, Fiesole, Italy
Corresponding author:
Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute, Via Bolognese 156, 50139 Florence, Italy and University of Bologna, Via
Zamboni 22, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
E-mail: Giovanni.Sartor@eui.eu
Maastricht Journal of European and
Comparative Law
2020, Vol. 27(6) 705–719
ªThe Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1023263X20981566
maastrichtjournal.sagepub.com
MJ
MJ
To continue reading
Request your trial