recent ICE masking is the tip of the iceberg of this destructive practice
The appearance of various masked Federal agents seizing people on the street and shoving them into anonymous vehicles has added a new feature in American life – the threat of anonymous political power to whisk you away without due process. Or, even being able to identify who is whisking you away.
As unfortunate as this is, this is a belated introduction to the anonymity that has been overflowing in our public life for decades. Anonymous money dominates our political system. Anonymous speech fills the social media feeds that are now our main sources of information about what is going on. Increasingly, we are being exposed to media that is created by AI without any notice that we are in the presence of AI-generated media.
I have earlier called for an end to anonymous money in our political system. I have earlier called for regulations that require that we know in real time when we are exposed to AI machines (think of face recognition technology) or AI-generated content. Who are we going to challenge when our health insurance claim is denied by an AI tool used by United Healthcare or other insurance companies?
One of the keys to a fair society is our ability to know who is making decisions about our lives and challenge those decisions. At the level of the law, this is embedded in the concept of due process. The government cannot deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without following established legal procedures and providing adequate safeguards. This same notion should apply to the actions of corporations. When a corporation denies healthcare, you cannot escape the reality that they are doing so to fill their pockets at your expense. This situation, of course, brings the role of AI into sharp focus as companies have arrived to offer AI services to file claims and counter the insurance companies’ AI tools.1
Here are some earlier posts on the topic of anonymity and secrecy in our politics and economy:
Footnotes
For example, see Claimable, whose website says: “We make it easy to appeal denied health claims”.
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