Topic
AI
Commentary
Artificial intelligence (AI) can enable great societal benefits by allowing for more efficient and personalized services. Indeed, automated decision-making systems based on machine learning algorithms are increasingly utilized in essential public or private services like recruitment, education, finance, health care, advertising, and policing. However, this can also give rise to…
Publications
AI systems can have a positive impact, but at the same time, biased algorithmic decision-making poses threats to equality and non-discrimination. Demos Helsinki conducted an assessment framework and a policy brief that would assist developers to establish an equitable journey for the development of AI services in the public sector, from design to deployment.
Projects
As technological breakthroughs can play a critical role in addressing societal challenges, research & innovation (R&I) policy needs to shift the focus from merely appreciating the inherent value of technology development to exploring how they can be harnessed for achieving key societal goals. This project aims to produce a knowledge base to ensure Finland’s R&I policy is strategically impactful while remaining supportive of emerging technologies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems can undermine democracy via the cultural disruptions they create, the power dynamics they shift, their tendency toward opacity, and the speed at which they change. The KT4D project investigates how democracy and civic participation can be facilitated in an era of rapidly changing knowledge technologies — such as AI and big data, thereby mitigating the risks of such technologies and identifying how they can be used to reinforce democratic governance and trust in public institutions.
What does the rapid expansion of AI mean for society? Driven by pressures to do more with shrinking resources, public sector authorities are deploying and planning to deploy automated service delivery. The pursuit of efficiency, combined with the lack of well-defined operational models and insufficient regulatory oversight, creates pressure towards…
People
Vera Djakonoff
Clinging on to only what we have now is a lousy way forward. At Demos Helsinki, Vera’s work focuses on anticipatory governance: promoting governments’ and organisations’ ability to both build resilience and drive transformation. A key question in her work is: how can we create and deepen our connection to…
Anna Björk
Anna is a political scientist whose academic love affairs include research on political concepts, societal impacts of emerging technologies, and temporality. Her current and upcoming research analyses societal transformations from the perspectives of the EU digital policy, contemporary social contracts, and inclusivity. Alongside doing research, Anna is also working closely…
Atte Ojanen
Atte is in charge of coordinating Demos Helsinki’s European research funding to enable societal transformation. As a research manager, he is your go-to-person in Horizon Europe and other research collaboration matters. Atte’s own research centers on societal effects of emerging technology, the ethics of AI, and deliberative democracy. Atte is…
Johannes Anttila (on leave)
What kinds of technologies do we actually want to live with? This is the question that Johannes keeps returning to in his work. Be it about working towards a shared vision in a national level AI program, building worker-led strategies towards emerging technologies or assessing the impacts of algorithms on democracy, Johannes…
Johannes Mikkonen
Johannes is dedicated to redefining the terms and conditions of our digital futures by exploring the ways to reshape our current sociotechnical systems, advising on policies to remaster technologies and forming visions of emerging alternative futures. At Demos Helsinki, Johannes has worked with various ministries and Prime Minister’s Offices around…
Themes
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Policies against algorithmic discrimination still lacking
September 22, 2021
The deployment of AI systems in the public sector is still in its infancy, but algorithmic discrimination has been identified as a growing risk. The first findings of research project ‘Avoiding AI Biases‘ show that tools to assess and address discrimination are still lacking. The challenge: Algorithmic discrimination threatens fundamental…