AI’s Threat to American Jurispruence–A Non-Partisan Issue

I have been asked if my belief that AI and Algorithms are a profound threat to Civil Rights, Legal Remedies, and American Jurisprudence (hence the title of my book) is some “libtard” belief, or one that is quite at home with QAnon conspiracies. I personally believe that my fears are completely non-partisan, and create risks for all Americans, regardless of their political beliefs. It may be one of the few issues that everyone can and should still agree upon.

After all, the risk of discrimination and the loss of due process rights from AI and algorithms will cross all political spectrums. If the expectation of privacy dwindles to nothing because everything we do is data-mined, analyzed and marketized, we will all face the consequences, whether we love or hate Trump. If social media algorithms can block posts because their content is offensive to other social media customers, those on the Left and Right could find their access to the Age of Algorithm’s “public square” equally blocked by the feelings of the over-sensitive and intolerant Center.

So, the next time we progressives cheer because the right wing finds its access to mainstream social media blocked, remember that our opinions may be the next target of those algorithms. The risk that government algorithms will deny benefits unfairly, and those same algorithms will be immune from court cases to correct the unfair denials, can and will happen to our friends, loved ones and selves, regardless of who we voted for. In fact, the entire spectrum of political beliefs may collapse under the onslaught of algorithms that cannot be questioned though they are certainly flawed, and do nothing but make the government seem right, regardless of what happens to its citizenry. A government that cannot be challenged, let alone corrected, is the very definition of a tyranny, and if the United States becomes that tyranny, our fight for civil rights and legal remedies as members of the ACLU or the CPAC will seem like mere quaint old-time habits that are as relevant as carriage houses and horse stables in our back yards.