Conviction in the capability of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) to solve social problems has guided policy and technological investment in Finland from the 2010’s. The digitisation of public services and interventions utilising AI have focused in particular on steering the lives of vulnerable citizens.
The DIG1t0 project examines the automation of public administration and digital services and its impact on the conditions for democracy, especially from the perspective of vulnerable citizens. We are seeking answers to the questions what kind of epistemic (in)justice automated systems and digital services provide to vulnerable citizens and how such politics of algorithms transforms the conditions of democracy in society. In particular, we will focus on the complex role of language as part of using and designing public digital services.
The multidisciplinary project creatively combines empirical linguistic studies and social science research with AI ethics, philosophical epistemology and political theory. Utilising diverse qualitative data, the project relies on multimodal interaction analysis, document analysis and argumentation analysis in its methodology. The results are disseminated to the public through a live science event, bringing researchers and co-researchers on stage.
Our understanding is that a debate on the politics of algorithms and developing principles in AI ethics cannot be fair without an in-depth dialogue with those citizens who are steered by proactive analytics and automated systems. Following the principle of co-research, the study highlights two groups of citizens – immigrants and mental health rehabilitees – whose epistemic ability to express their own experiences and be heard as epistemic actors is encouraged by the project. We will strengthen the grassroots societal debate on the politics of algorithms by presenting alternative and critical views on the capabilities of AI regarding its biases, fairness and disadvantages.