Acerca de
How Administrative Law is undergoing
Paradigm Shifts largely due to the AI.
Governmental Monopoly on the
Implementation and Use of Artificial Intelligence.
Polina Prianykova
International Human Rights Defender on AI,
Author of the First AI Constitution in World History,
Student of the Law Faculty & the Faculty of Economics
How Administrative Law is undergoing Paradigm Shifts largely due to the AI.
Governmental Monopoly on the Implementation and Use of Artificial Intelligence.
In this day and age, cutting-edge technologies have been elaborated with the aim to accelerate various processes such as data analysis and finding certain solutions to relevant problems that arise. Many governmental institutions have given their vote to availing themselves of Artificial Intelligence and hence, have tipped the scales in favor of its implementation. Nevertheless, such novelties still spark controversy, especially when shedding the light on the regulation and supervision thereof.
Keywords: administrative services, governmental monopoly on AI, regulation of AI, e-government, innovations and law, governmental AI.
Formulation of the relevance of the scientific article. Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter also referred to as ‘AI’) is a sophisticated invention that has given great benefit to miscellaneous realms and, unequivocally, has to be deemed as a subject worth drawing the legislator’s closest attention. Many innovative algorithms have already been deployed into myriads of programs and, what is significant to put the emphasis on, have not been monitored in accordance with the established procedure. What is more, the latter norms have not been globally developed and comprehensively formulated in particular and such a situation undermines the claim that the process of supervising and exercising control over advanced mechanisms is in check. Basically, we do not intend to compare AI with a powder keg. However, the aforementioned allegory might be used if the ad-hoc regulation isn’t stipulated, compiled, and enacted properly.
Thus, great attention is given to clusters of innovations with AI implemented, inter alia being used by public services, and the pitfalls that may occur in the long-term due to the inadequate or non-centralized regulatory approach applied – that is actually what constitutes the objective of this scientific work, furthermore focusing precisely on the creation of the governmental monopoly on the implementation and use of AI.
Recent research and publication analysis. Novelties that are and may be used nowadays as well as in the nearest future are taken into consideration, given a particular focus on journalistic articles from experts in China, India, Australia, and the USA in particular [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Moreover, the notion also illuminated by Elon Musk, considering the regulation of AI, is heeded [10] and the possibilities and benefits of the use of AI, particularly in the administrative legal system, are considered [8]. The crucial part of the Scientific doctrine on AI implementation into the worldwide legislation by Polina Prianykova is specified [9].
Presentation of the main body of the article. Artificial Intelligence may serve as a versatile tool able to assist governmental institutions with a respective insight and high velocity of data processing; it can as well make its own deductions and further proposals based on the information and patterns it detects. That is the reason for the notion that the implementation of the relevant mechanisms is imminent and has already materialized in modern days – the tendency that in commercial space such innovations also started being widely used might have also served as a certain catalytic agent for the government’s interest in AI. For example, the novelty is able to meet the basic needs of the public pertaining to getting the prompt feedback on the questions asked and hence, may alleviate the pressure on the employees of public services.
Virtual assistants. A bright example can be provided by mentioning the established practice in IP Australia, an agency of the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. On their official website, a specific chatbot called ‘Alex’ was deployed, it is stated to have been borrowed from the Australian Taxation Office and is considered to be ‘a government helper’ by the Digital Transformation Agency in particular. This virtual assistant answers the questions related to intellectual property rights, specifically operating on the IP Australia online platform. It is the first aide that can provide citizens with the relevant information and has proved to be involved in around 40 percent of the interactions between the organization and its customers. The respective call center has benefitted from the implementation of the chatbot as it seems to have decreased the burden of the employees being constantly engaged in more than 12 000 calls per month, giving answers to the questions ‘Alex’ can find in the blink of an eye. Hence, in about 2 years, the program has contributed to the office’s breakthrough, taking over more than half of the queries, and affirmed the proportionality and importance of the implementation thereof [1].
Answering our own request, ‘Alex’ confirmed that it is ‘still learning’ and ‘doesn’t know everything just yet’ [2]. However, we may presume that the virtual assistants similar to the aforementioned chatbot will only grow in popularity, being constantly developed. It might sound quite controversial, but there also exists an opinion that people still tend to prefer real-human virtual assistance to AI. This can be explained by the fact that chatbots sometimes fail to give the experience of a real conversation, due to their idiosyncrasy of simultaneously being friendly but quite alienated. Undoubtedly, service providers are aware of this situation, and we may suggest that nowadays virtual assistants would be given greater attention in order for the services to continue taking advantage of chatbots’ deployment.
Draftsmanship. Many documents have standardized templates which can be analyzed by the AI and subsequently be used for drawing up various references. What is more, innovative mechanisms may not be solely efficient for citizens getting the necessary certificates, but notably the governmental institutions. The employees of the public services always have to know about the recent amendments in the legislation, what language and phrases are commonly used and accepted etc. Nevertheless, it is vital to note that the process of reviewing the drafted documents is time-consuming and if AI was utilized, the burden on these organizations would be substantially reduced and the public servants could focus on other significant tasks. What is more, there exists a high probability that such applications would become a real ‘tidbit’ for individuals, e.g. attorneys or notaries.
Unequivocally, Artificial Intelligence has already been used in similar cases, but if the government of each country adopted its own version of the program specializing in drafting and reviewing certain documents, and in the long-term entrenched its own exclusive right to avail itself thereof, moreover, give license to competent legal practitioners, the application would become a credible assistant in compiling and processing vast amounts of data. In addition, as the novelty has to be centrally supervised and updated by the governmental institutions, it may rule out the possibility of mala fides. Certainly, such innovations may seem to be complementary from first sight, but, taking into account the fact that people tend to get used to good quickly, we cannot exclude the likelihood that users may start relying on these apps more and more. Thus, the government has to establish its sole right to create these inventions and exercise control over the updates, in order for the app to remain reliable.
Investigations. Facial recognition, monitoring of online platforms and services, detection of suspicious activity on social networking sites – if this data is collected and analyzed, being guided by the notion of a granular and centralized approach applied, public services may get much more solutions to cases they encounter with; law-enforcement agencies would be provided with the supernova innovation as AI is watchful and, undoubtedly, perceptive. Moreover, if the technology’s algorithms are evolving, it would be able to become more resilient and adaptable, gaining more experience in a particular field.
Nowadays, AI has significantly contributed to campaigns for finding the missing children, including even long-pending cases. Technology has shed the light through the abyss of hopelessness and desperation. Taking into consideration the progress of the launch of the ‘Tuanyuan’ system, which means ‘Reunion’ in Chinese, its success is truly promising. Being created by an e-commerce giant 'Alibaba Group Holding Ltd', the program is aimed at sharing the information about the missing children timely; it is connected to various media platforms and, when the competent authorities, e.g. police officers, are informed about the missing person, they are ‘authorized to release information about missing or abducted children on mobile apps’. After that, ‘Tuanyuan’ sends notifications about such cases – citizens, in their turn, become aware of these facts, their vigilance is raised and, if they become witnesses of kidnapping, they may also help the police by providing the latter with up-to-date details about the incident [3].
According to China’s Ministry of Public Security, since the launch of the campaign elucidated afore, more than 350 long-pending cases involving child abduction have been resolved, and 890 suspects have been caught [4]. What is more, 10,932 abducted children have been found [5]. This reunion has been particularly unexpected and seemed to be a ‘miracle’ as some of the injured parties turned out to be separated from their families for more than 20 years (the statistics provided identify that this gap reaches the figure of 60 years and above for 110 victims) [4].
Another successful practice vital to note comprises the AI algorithms interconnected with the facial recognition mechanisms. The police in China are using the system to identify and track the missing children; the technology builds up the image of the victims by taking the information available in the database. Jointly, the law-enforcement authorities managed to rescue 10 children out of 13 who were abducted between 2006 and 2014 within the territory of the country; 7 victims were traced with the help of Artificial Intelligence in particular. Although the leader of the criminal group was arrested in 2014, the police could not find the abducted [3]. Things began to change in 2017 when the program was introduced into the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department and started serving as a real virtual helper (with an accuracy claimed to be greater than 96 percent) in investigations [6].
It should be highlighted that similar facial recognition systems have been deployed in other countries, inter alia in India and the US. However, the use of such technology has been deemed to be alarming in view of certain privacy concerns. In response to this fact, the spokesman of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in India stated the following, “If such a type of software helps trace missing children and reunite them with their families, nothing can be better than this.” [7]
In the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is claimed to have an organization that serves as an assistant that uses novel technologies, basically, the nonprofitable National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is deemed to use advanced AI mechanisms in order to process vast amounts of data related to suspicious online activity and hence report the collected facts to the relevant law-enforcement agency [8].
What undermines the claim that the aforementioned practices are credible and perspective is the fact that they have been formed during the times of transitional period for the legislation and regulation of AI because there are only a few steps taken to start the latter being drafted. Hence, as the most intelligent and highly developed systems are owned by non-profitable or commercial entities, the clout they concentrate in providing the governmental institutions with their assistance may exacerbate the enactment of particular legal provisions and culminate in the use of the foregoing influence as a leverage for the government. Such a state of affairs puts into jeopardy not only the sovereignty of the system but the compliance with fundamental human rights and the protection thereof.
Hence, as a part of my Scientific doctrine on AI implementation into the worldwide legislation (Scientific doctrine on AI implementation into the worldwide legislation by Polina Prianykova) [9], it is significant to put the emphasis on its key notion – establishing the governmental monopoly on the implementation and use of Artificial Intelligence.
Synthesizing the information set afore, it is pivotal to note that once Elon Musk has made a comparison between the innovation and nuclear weapons, emphasizing that ‘AI is far more dangerous than nukes. Far. So why do we have no regulatory oversight? This is insane.’ [10] But this ‘regulatory oversight’ has to be clear-cut, solid, and immune to any manipulation on behalf of influential corporations. Thus, the government has to act immediately, it may be started from the relevant resolution of the United Nations that, in its turn, will become a binding instrument for countries all around the globe and, hence, for the businesses that use the technology with AI implemented there will be nothing left but to come to newly established terms of the use of AI in a civilized way.
Moreover, it would preclude the high probability of certain technological isolation for countries that may have decided to adopt the ad-hoc legislation first: as in such a state of affairs, popular online services could have left the market of these countries. Hence, the global governmental monopoly on AI may presume that the novel form of the aforementioned innovation may subordinate miscellaneous algorithms that have been elaborated with different aims for functioning in online platforms and services – making the users spend more and more time on their application or get particular details of the personal data of individuals, encourage customers to make purchases, etc. However, the objective of the governmental AI will be different – to ensure that the functioning of algorithms in such novelties complies with standards of the rule of law that may be general and specific, depending on the particularities of the law system of each country. It is in this case that if the platforms and services want to target the users of a particular country, they first have to adapt to the rules on AI and get a special license that will also let the governmental AI access their system and operate therein.
Undoubtedly, this tactic is unprecedented and not less innovative than the AI itself, but it will serve as a real helper in the long term, by assisting in investigations and preventing violations of law. It should be noted that, pursuant to the aforementioned course of action, we may exercise control over the innovations, harmonizing the legislation with AI, creating a tangible mechanism that would boost technological progress, and establish a protective barrier for the human rights of people of the world.
References:
1. ‘IP Australia's Alex is more than just a chatbot’, Asha Barbaschow – URL: https://www.zdnet.com/article/ip-australias-alex-is-more-than-just-a-chatbot/ – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
2. ‘IP Australia’, Australian Government – URL: https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
3. ‘Police using AI to trace long-missing children’, Zhang Yan, ‘China Daily Global’ – URL: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/04/WS5cf5c8a8a310519142700e2f.html – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
4. ‘Chinese police find over 10,000 missing, abducted children in 2021’, Xinhua, ‘China Daily’ – URL: https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202201/02/WS61d157a2a310cdd39bc7eb80.html – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
5. ‘10,932 missing, abducted children found under police's Reunion Campaign’, ‘Global Times’ – URL: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1245582.shtml – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
6. ‘Facial Recognition Technology Is Being Used To Find Missing Children’, Marcia Wendorf, ‘Interesting Engineering’ – URL: https://interestingengineering.com/facial-recognition-technology-is-being-used-to-find-missing-children – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
7. ‘Indian police trace 3,000 missing children in just four days using facial recognition technology’, Anthony Cuthbertson, ‘The Independent’ – URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/india-police-missing-children-facial-recognition-tech-trace-find-reunite-a8320406.html – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
8. ‘AI in Government Drives Extraordinary Possibilities’, ‘Intel’ – URL: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/government/artificial-intelligence.html – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
9. “Particularities of the regulation of AI algorithms, inter alia in online platforms and services, based on the example of ‘TikTok’”, IHRDonAI Polina Prianykova – URL: https://isg-konf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Multidisciplinary-academic-notes.-Science-research-and-practice.pdf – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
10. ‘A.I. is far more dangerous than nukes’, Polina Prianykova, ‘International Human Rights Defender on AI Polina Prianykova’ – URL: https://prianykovabusiness.wixsite.com/defender/post/a-i-is-far-more-dangerous-than-nukes – (Accessed on 25 April 2022).
Officially Published in May 10-13, 2022, Florence, Italy (Table of Contents, № 47)
https://isg-konf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Advancing-in-research-practice-and-education.pdf
© Copyright by Polina Prianykova_all rights reserved
