Democracy

The concept of “just transition” has so far arrived in Eastern and Southeastern Europe only as a fragment of nice environmental jargon. There is a lack of protagonists strong enough to create conditions for a more powerful social and political impact. In order to act within ecological limits and remain below a warming of 1.5° Celsius, we must also consume less. Until now, consumption, like growth, has been equated with well-being and prosperity.

Bosnia-Herzegovina wants to phase out fossil fuels by 2050. For the country, which is largely dependent on coal, this is a serious turning point. However, the word "transition", which is often used for this process, is rather hated by the population, because it is not associated with equality and justice, but rather with an enriching political elite.

In the following months, the Brazilian Senate will vote on a 10-article bill establishing principles for the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Its content, however, may help perpetuate recent cases of algorithmic discrimination through provisions that hinder the accountability for AI-induced errors and restrict the scope of rights established in Brazil’s General Data Protection Legislation and in the Brazilian Constitution.

Where do we want to go as a society? This question, but above all the answer to it, depends not least on our perspective on the world and on how we ourselves are affected by discrimination. In short: the answers we find are also identity politics. With this page we want to create a contribution to the introduction to the topic of identity politics: What does the term actually mean? What is currently being discussed? Where we want to head as a society?

An attempted crackdown on protest in the UK has suffered a partial defeat in the House of Lords, writes Ros Taylor. But the government is still determined to make it more difficult for Britons to organise and take part in public protest, and hand substantial powers to the police – just as their authority has come under new scrutiny.

A Bill of Rights for the AI-enabled world, regulatory challenges, and socio-technical risks: Jessica Newman, who leads the AI Security Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, discusses recent AI developments in the United States and Europe with our Transatlantic Media Fellow Ekaterina Venkina in an interview for BigData-Insider.

How do we preserve our humanity in a world of intelligent machines? AI researcher Mark Nitzberg on the need to build AI models that are safe for humans and make explainable decisions – and why standards and oversight are key.  Our fellow Ekaterina Venkina interviewed the Executive Director at the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley (CHAI) for RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

2022 promises to be an exciting electoral year. At least seven seats of the European Council are up for grabs, of which the votes involving Emmanuel Macron and Viktor Orbán may electrify electoral enthusiasts the most. This piece reviews which European leaders will need to defend their positions and how the European Green Party (EGP) members are performing in polls before national, regional and local elections in Europe during 2022.

What does care mean in a Covid-19 pandemic context? Why does care fail and gender-based violence becomes even more resilient in itself, despite being conceptualised as a "pandemic within a pandemic" in a context of intensifying sexism, culturalist stereotypes and xenophobia, not to mention social policing and the intensive securitization of borders and mobility?

The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act aims to regulate emerging applications of AI in accordance with “EU values”. But for the most concerning of all such potential applications, the line between regulation and prohibition can be a tricky one to draw.