Where does artificial intelligence belong in human rights? 

If you are like many Americans, you’d say it belongs in the trash. Cataloging the various ethical concerns about the technology, from cheating and intellectual property infringement to job displacement and environmental harm, you’d argue that AI continues to prove it’s more harmful than helpful to humanity. You would hardly be alone. Human rights advocates have long warned about technologies that facilitate abuse and concentrate power. But is that really the full picture?

Harnessing AI for Social Good

Human rights activists have good reason to be skeptical about emerging technologies. For decades, they have warned about facial recognition systems that enable mass surveillance, autonomous weapons that remove human judgement from the use of force, and social media algorithms that spread misinformation and fuel violence. To many, AI is simply the latest technology in this long history of abuse. 

But that's never been the whole story. While human rights groups were quick to sound the alarm about the potential harms of AI even before ChatGPT ushered us into a new era in late 2022, they were also among the first to recognize the opportunities the technology presents in protecting rights in an increasingly digital world. At the inaugural AI for Good Summit in 2017, Salil Shetty, then-Secretary General of Amnesty International, envisioned a future in which AI's potential is harnessed for social good. In his address to the conference, Shetty imagined that “we could have artificial intelligence systems that detect and correct bias in data, rather than doubling down on human bias; we have automation that takes people out of dangerous and degrading jobs, but also educational and economic policies that create opportunities for dignified and fulfilling jobs […] In short, it’s a future where AI is a technology where human rights is a core design and use principle.”

Flash forward a few years, and this vision appears to have come true. AI and data analytics tools are transforming human rights work by enabling large-scale monitoring of crises. AI-powered satellite imagery analysis has helped Amnesty International detect the destruction of human settlements in Darfur, Sudan. Additionally, researchers at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have leveraged machine learning and predictive analytics to forecast the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in Somalia. Rather than replacing investigators, these systems allow them to process evidence at a scale and speed that would otherwise be impossible.

The work has even gotten close to home. Since 2019, the Analytics for Good Institute at the Minnesota Carlson School of Management has brought together data analytics and artificial intelligence in its mission to “serve the common good”. Students in the program have analyzed large amounts of data from Hennepin County to determine the factors behind homelessness, producing a model that predicts who is most likely to be evicted from their homes. Used responsibly, tools like these can help local officials intervene before a family loses housing, instead of responding only after the damage has been done.

For Your Reconsideration

With these helpful applications, then, doesn’t AI deserve a reconsideration?

I’m not arguing for blind acceptance of these tools. AI and big data analytics are not inherently neutral. Built and evaluated by humans, these technologies regularly reflect the prejudices and biases of their creators. But we can’t do away with them just because of their shortcomings. Instead, we can recognize their power to advance change while working to ensure they are safe and equitable. The question is not simply whether AI is good or bad, but who designs it, who benefits from it, and who is held accountable when it causes harm.

Since the release of ChatGPT, thousands of bills aimed at regulating AI have been introduced at the national and local levels, many of which focus on transparency and consumer protection. This reflects an important shift in the conversation, away from whether AI should exist and toward how it should be governed. Human rights advocates should continue exposing the technology’s dangers, but they should also have a seat at the table shaping its future. As AI becomes an unavoidable part of modern society, ensuring it protects human dignity rather than undermines it may be one of the defining human rights challenges of our time.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are the author’s only and do not reflect an official position of the University of Minnesota, the Human Rights Program, or the College of Liberal Arts. As an institution of higher education that values and promotes free speech, civil discourse, and human rights, we welcome a variety of perspectives and opinions from our student contributors that are consistent with these values.