Digital Transformation of Decision-Making
The Digital Transformation of Decision-Making refers to the way in which algorithms, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) affect markets and society, changing democratic processes, commercial value chains, public administration, and how public values are being realized – or challenged. We will focus on automated decision-making (ADM) systems, which are set to replace human decision-makers in a range of areas, from justice to media, commerce, health, and labor. ADM shifts decision-making power and infrastructure to entities that produce, collect and aggregate data, build models and optimize algorithms. This creates new dependencies on (commercial) technology companies that harbor the unique expertise, innovation and control over data needed for ADM, and new challenges for the governance of decision-making.
The overarching research question for the research initiative is: What are the normative implications of the shift from human to automated decision-making, focusing particularly on the role of platforms and data as key actors and commodities in this process.
The initiative consists of 3 interrelated research clusters:
· Realization of fundamental rights and public values.
· Private platform ordering.
· Data governance.
The Digital Transformation of Decision-Making is a faculty-wide initiative of the Amsterdam Law School, spearheaded by the Institute for Information Law (IViR). It is one of the two themes (the other being Globalisation) that the University of Amsterdam has prioritised as part of the legal research agenda 2019–2025 (‘Sectorplan rechtsgeleerdheid’; Digital Legal Studies) in the Netherlands. This initiative is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (OCW), in consultation with NWO, through the law sector plan. The other partner universities in this sector plan are Tilburg University, Radboud University Nijmegen, Maastricht University, which are collaboratively working on questions related to law and technology. There are also other affiliated projects that contribute to and are part of, this growing initiative.