The new digital slavery needs constitutional guardrails
The article argues that unchecked Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies pose an existential threat to human dignity, democracy, and national sovereignty, likening the ownership of personal data to "digital slavery." It highlights issues such as algorithmic manipulation, deepfakes, disinformation, and foreign interference, which undermine the shared epistemic foundation necessary for democratic functioning. The author calls for India to adopt a rights-based framework for AI governance, ensure platform accountability, protect free speech, implement widespread digital literacy initiatives, and establish early-warning systems against misinformation, elevating AI governance to a constitutional imperative to safeguard democracy.
The article argues that unchecked Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies pose an existential threat to human dignity, democracy, and national sovereignty, likening the ownership of personal data to "digital slavery." It highlights issues such as algorithmic manipulation, deepfakes, disinformation, and foreign interference, which undermine the shared epistemic foundation necessary for democratic functioning. The author calls for India to adopt a rights-based framework for AI governance, ensure platform accountability, protect free speech, implement widespread digital literacy initiatives, and establish early-warning systems against misinformation, elevating AI governance to a constitutional imperative to safeguard democracy.
Exam linkage
GS Paper 2: Indian Polity & Governance (Fundamental Rights, Constitutional Bodies, Government Policies & Interventions, Federalism, Separation of Powers). GS Paper 3: Science & Technology (Developments and their applications and effects in everyday life, IT, Computers, Robotics, AI), Internal Security (Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security). Essay: Topics related to technology, democracy, ethics, governance, and human rights.
Syllabus mapping
This topic appears in Mains
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