The highly transformative, artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting the basic conditions by which human beings interpret and make sense of the world. AI is continuing to evolve as a new and increasingly influential type of actor throughout almost every aspect of society. The profound changes brought by digitalization in general, and by AI in particular, directly impact social and institutional formation, operation and cohesion. The potential consequences are weighty and varied, ranging from disrupted human habits to a confused state in fundamental institutional structures such as law and politics. The AI technologies and the way they are integrated in society displace characteristic human abilities such as creativity, decision making, and critical thinking. The structural effects of the way we implement AI, such as through algorithmic administration, governance, and the curating of information flows, also affect the space, modes and meaning of democratic citizenship. Through challenging human agency and uniqueness, these developments call into question certain core values of worldviews, political philosophies and the foundations of law.

In this lecture, this current development is explored. Since 2017, different initiatives have been taken both in Europe and globally to enact new rules regulating artificial intelligence, rules that will have an impact on how democracy and human rights are perceived, understood and realized.