Podcast: AI, Populism And The Threat To Human Rights

The latest Future Tense episode is a real head-scratcher. The podcast's premise is somehow tangled: it connects the gradual decline in safeguards and respect for human rights to both the spread of populism and authoritarian politics and to the growing prominence of digitization and Artificial Intelligence.

The episode starts with the notion that the decline of liberal democracy and the rise of populist and nationalist political forces erodes global commitment to human rights and encourages abuses around the world. The show takes a somehow unexpected turn along the way to focus its attention on the threats that emerging technologies present to human rights. Yale's Samuel Moyn talks about the changing concept of privacy in the digital era. Birgit Schippers from Queen's University Belfast examines the use of autonomous weapon systems, also called "killer robots", and underlines the ethical basis for human control. Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow discusses the concept of responsible innovation and regulatory ways to protect and promote human rights in an era of technological change. And lastly, after focusing on their dangers, Alyssa Satara, a human rights advocate, explores the potentials of new technologies for promoting civil liberties and assisting civil society, talking social media and blockchain, among others.

The podcast left me with mixed feelings. Undoubtedly, it could use a better structure that would weave the themes together into a more coherent argument. Still, the show is informative, if treated more as a collection of interesting thoughts to consider when ruminating about the changing paradigm of human rights protection. As the show's presenter Antony Funnell says, "even rights that once seemed immutable can change over time" and "need to be reinvestigated, renegotiated or rethought." This podcast could serve as a starting point in this thought process.