The writer is co-founder and chief scientist of Dionysus HealthToday you were passed over for a job. You were declined a loan. You, or perhaps your child, were rejected from a top university. And you never even knew it happened. Every day, across some of the deepest, most constitutionally-protected parts of our lives, algorithms are making decisions that no human could ever justify face to face.
Under pressure, companies are debating ethical frameworks and establishing advisory councils. We don’t need an artificial intelligence manifesto — we need a constitution. As it is being used today, AI is simply incompatible with civil rights.
As chief scientist of one of the first companies to use AI in hiring, I built the system that passed you over for that job. The massive employers that were our customers didn’t need to wait for your job application; we in effect applied for you, whether you knew it or not. But when AI decides who gets hired you’ll never know why it wasn’t you. A human being asking you about age, your politics or family planning during the hiring process would be an actionable violation of your civil rights. AI doing the same without your knowledge is just as wrong, but completely hidden from view.