Landlords, employers, courts, agencies, insurance companies, police, social media platforms, and others use AI systems to make automated decisions that may impact people’s rights. These systems often reflect embedded bias. Limiting the risk of harm begins, but doesn’t end, with meaningful transparency, due process for people subjected to automated decision-making (ADM), and impact assessments regarding potential bias and other harms. Government use of ADM in particular must meet a very high bar: systems used to support consequential decisions must be interpretable, explainable and auditable. ADM should respect international human rights standards. Many of the most popular AI architectures in use today do not meet those goals.
EFF fights automated oppression alongside community members, lawmakers, and litigators, from San Francisco to Strasbourg.
Here is a selection of our blog posts on algorithmic decision making:
EFF Sues for Answers About Medicare's AI Experiment
Little is known about AI that could affect millions of seniors' care. EFF today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking records about a multi-state program that is using AI to evaluate requests for medical care.
Strengthen Colorado’s AI Act
Powerful institutions are using automated decision-making against us. Fortunately, workers, patients, and renters are resisting. The Colorado AI Act is a good step in the right direction. Still, EFF urges Colorado to strengthen it, especially in its enforcement mechanisms.
EFF Letter Opposing Federal Preemption of State AI Laws
EFF writes to express our deep concern over efforts to preempt state artificial intelligence (AI) laws though inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These concerns remain regardless of whether these preemption proposals are in the NDAA, a standalone bill, or an executive order.
Yes to California’s “No Robo Bosses Act”
Algorithmic decision-making is a growing threat to workers. California’s Governor should sign S.B. 7, a common-sense bill to end some of the harshest consequences of automated abuse at work. EFF is proud to join dozens other advocates in support of the “No Robo Bosses Act.”
NYC Lets AI Gamble with Child Welfare
The Markup revealed in its reporting last month that New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has been quietly deploying an algorithmic tool to categorize families as “high risk". Using a grab-bag of factors like neighborhood and mother’s age, this AI tool can put families under intensified scrutiny without proper justification and oversight.
Fighting Automated Oppression: 2024 in Review
ADMs use data and predefined rules or models to make or support decisions, often with minimal human involvement, and in 2024, the topic has been more active than ever before, with landlords, employers, regulators, and police adopting new tools that have the potential to impact both personal freedom and access to necessities like medicine and housing.
EFF & 140 Other Organizations Call for an End to AI Use in Immigration Decisions
EFF, Just Futures Law, and 140 other groups have sent a letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must stop using artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the immigration system.
Americans Are Uncomfortable with Automated Decision-Making
Imagine a company you recently applied to work at used an artificial intelligence program to analyze your application to help expedite the review process. Does that creep you out? Well, you’re not alone.
Podcast Episode: Algorithms for a Just Future
Surveillance-based, algorithmic decision-making can be difficult to see, much less address. These are the complex issues that Vinhcent Le, Legal Counsel for the Greenlining Institute, confronts every day.
EFF to HUD: Algorithms Are No Excuse for Discrimination
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is considering adopting new rules that would effectively insulate landlords, banks, and insurance companies that use algorithmic models from lawsuits that claim their practices have an unjustified discriminatory effect. HUD’s proposal is flawed, and suggests that the agency doesn’t understand how machine learning and other algorithmic tools work in practice.
EFF Urges DHS to Abandon Social Media Surveillance and Automated "Extreme Vetting" of Immigrants
EFF is urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end its programs of social media surveillance and automated “extreme vetting” of immigrants. Together, these programs have created a privacy-invading integrated system to harvest, preserve, and data-mine immigrants' social media information, including use of algorithms that sift through posts using vague criteria to help determine who to admit or deport.
