The right to equality and non-discrimination in artificial intelligence: legal issues, challenges, and prospects

Artificial intelligence (AI) is inducing a transformation of the world and human lives. One element of this transformation is the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights, and one critical concern within human rights is its discriminatory impacts. The discriminatory impacts of artificial intelligence require researching the matter in the context of the right to equality and non-discrimination. The first chapter of this study handles the equality and discrimination related matters in artificial intelligence as a human rights law problem within the scope of the right to equality and non-discrimination by going over relevant definitions and notions with the aim to integrate its technical and ethical facets with the legal perspective. The second chapter examines how discrimination through artificial intelligence emanates by scrutinizing different areas of artificial intelligence use and examples of discrimination through artificial intelligence under the discrimination grounds established in human rights law. The second chapter later addresses discrimination through artificial intelligence under the existing international human rights law. It explores different potentials for positive and procedural obligations and aims to visualize discrimination through artificial intelligence by building on the discrimination test developed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Looking at the existing international human rights law also provides a bridge to examining how specific regulations for artificial intelligence may address discrimination through artificial intelligence. The third chapter examines what the regulatory works on artificial intelligence promise for the right to equality and non-discrimination in the context of artificial intelligence by exploring both non-binding and binding documents, including those from the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU), in light of the principles for artificial intelligence, including transparency and explainability, accountability, human control and oversight, and security and safety.