Societal, Economic, Ethical and Legal Challenges of the Digital Revolution: From Big Data to Deep Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Manipulative Technologies

摘要

In the wake of the on-going digital revolution, we will see a dramatictransformation of our economy and most of our societal institutions. While thebenefits of this transformation can be massive, there are also tremendous risksto our society. After the automation of many production processes and thecreation of self-driving vehicles, the automation of society is next. This ismoving us to a tipping point and to a crossroads: we must decide between asociety in which the actions are determined in a top-down way and thenimplemented by coercion or manipulative technologies (such as personalized adsand nudging) or a society, in which decisions are taken in a free andparticipatory way and mutually coordinated. Modern information andcommunication systems (ICT) enable both, but the latter has economic andstrategic benefits. The fundaments of human dignity, autonomousdecision-making, and democracies are shaking, but I believe that they need tobe vigorously defended, as they are not only core principles of livablesocieties, but also the basis of greater efficiency and success.