The mismeasure of the human: Big data and the ‘AI turn’ in global governance

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are already transforming our world socially, economically and politically and are part of our everyday lives, most of the time in invisible ways. In this paper, I offer some reflections on the possible effects that the ‘AI turn’ of global governance has for human rights practices, particularly in the case of the United Nations. This turn, under the banner ‘AI for good’, is expressed in the UN's intervention in major crises and continues with the creation of more mundane policies and law. The paper also shows that, beyond the policy and crisis‐intervention orientations of AI, we are witnessing the creation of new foundations for human belonging and being. Algorithmic interpretation and computational calculation contribute to the definition of the reality of intervention and to the institutional production of data identities and data realities that are part of digital humanity. All this is taking place through the automatization of decision making in the context of the increased interdependence between private and public sectors.