Work Package 3: Legal, Ethical, and Policy Considerations for Trustworthy AI-Assisted Digital Public Services

Design of digital services for migrants should be based on policy, law and people’s fundamental rights, particularly equality, human dignity, and good administration.

In work package 3, we study the interplay of law, policy, ethics, and technological systems design, both at the national and the local level. Finland is undergoing social and healthcare reform, which places increased responsibility on local governments (cities and regions) to manage social services. At the same time the national government is seeking to design and implement infrastructures to support the development and use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in public services, such as the national AI program AuroraAI. Despite national coordination efforts, there are major differences in how local governments have developed and implemented their services.

…digital services designed without a holistic human-centric approach and societal considerations may introduce new forms of inequalities which existing law may struggle to capture.

Therefore, work package 3 examines the interdependency of sociotechnical systems and human rights and law in general: what impact design may have on rights and what impact policy and law may have on the design process? How should policy and law inform technological design in public administration? Engaging with conceptual work by work package 2, work package 3 analyzes the societal, policy, ethical and legal context in which migrant integration is being developed and implemented.

The legal component of this work package will focus on privacy concerns related to conversational AI technologies and their implementation in public services, with a specific emphasis on interpretations of identifiability and the GDPR. This will link to human rights aspects as well.

The sociological and philosophical component of this work package will examine three interrelated aspects: 1. human-centeredness in national and local digitalisation and AI strategies which relate to migrant women, 2. the development and emergence of the ʻsmartʼ technology concept in public services, and 3. the relevance of data literacy in enhancing trust in technological systems and public services. These will help better define the conceptual underpinnings as well as the technical requirements needed in work package 4 and work package 5.

These components will be compared with the socio-technical imaginaries developed within the Finnish national AI program in order to better define the current needs related to integrating migrant women in Finnish society.

Work Package Leader:

Aaro Tupasela, aaro.tupasela(a)helsinki.fi

Researchers:

Sanna Wong-Toropainen

Frida Alizadeh Westerling

Viivi Eskelinen

Zahra Hosseini

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