AI and Human Rights : an explorative analysis of upcoming challenges

Abstract: AI has a great deal to offer human civilization, but AI is also accompanied with a great deal of risks. This paper aims to give an introduction to the field of AI from a human rights perspective and to account for future challenges AI could bring forth. I will argue that these challenges could come to put pressure on the contemporary notion of human rights as formulated in various declarations, covenants, conventions, and protocols by international community. And that it might prove difficult for the current human rights doctrine to survive the test of time as a functional axiom for rights and protection of humans in a conceivable AI future. A broad picture of risks and challenges is presented by analyzing four different topics related to AI and human rights: consciousness, rights and agency, bias and discrimination, and socio-economic rights. Moreover, contemporary guidelines are shown to lack a clear and feasible agenda for how to deal with future human rights concerns. I claim that two main factors could come to condition the trajectory of rights: efficiency and human imperfection.