When we think of freedom or ‘liberty’ we typically think of it in certain ways: e.g., freedom to act as we please, freedom from harm or interference, freedom of thought, or freedom to be a member of a community (Susskind, 2018: 165). Philosophers have often said that freedom insofar as it is afforded to you by others is not freedom (Dworkin, 1989: Ch 1; Pettit, 2017; Skinner, 2012). Whilst AI and big data could in several ways enhance freedom, it may also limit it.

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of how AI, big data and frontier technologies impact rights from the data protection perspective. The newly adopted definition of AI by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states that “an AI system is a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that (can) influence physical or virtual environments.

Companies have significant influence over public discourse in online platforms, necessitating that the algorithms that shape these online platforms should be regulated and constrained to sufficiently consider the public interest (Susskind, 2018: 350). Perhaps the easiest way of returning control of a public good to the people would be nationalisation of large AI companies and platforms. However, this also affords the government considerable power, to tailor public discourse to their interests (Susskind, 2018: 350).

The current EU approach to AI regulation faces several challenges and limitations that need to be addressed. One of the main issues is to what degree product legislation approach is fit for mitigating more systematic and democratic risks of AI systems and the lack of resources for regulatory and enforcement agencies. Another challenge is the compatibility of the EU approach with the collective bargaining and co-determination models that are prevalent in some member states.

There are both instrumental and intrinsic reasons to value democracy. In short, democracy is valuable instrumentally because: 

(1) democracy can assist us in producing laws and policies that protect the rights and interests of citizens, 

(2) democracy more often than other systems produces the right laws and policies (there are epistemic benefits to democratic decision-making), and 

(3) democracy can improve the people in it through increased autonomy and knowledge (Christiano and Bajaj, 2022).