Research consultancy
Human rights are rights that human beings have for as a result of being a live and are not granted by any state. These universal rights are inherent to all human beings, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. They range from the most fundamental, the right to life and to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health, and liberty[1].
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, was the first legal document to set out the fundamental human rights to be universally protected. The UDHR, which turned 75 on 10 December 2023, continues to be the foundation of all international human rights law. Its 30 articles provide the principles and building blocks of current and future human rights conventions, treaties and other legal instruments.
Human rights are central to what it means to be human. They were drafted and agreed internationally, with worldwide popular support, to define freedoms and entitlements that would allow every human being to live a life of liberty and dignity. Those fundamental human rights have been interpreted and developed over decades to delineate the parameters of fairness, equality and liberty for every individual[2].
Artificial intelligence (AI) is technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy. Applications and devices equipped with AI can see and identify objects[3]. They can understand and respond to human language. They can learn from new information and experience. They can make detailed recommendations to users and experts. They can act independently, replacing the need for human intelligence or intervention[4].
Artificial intelligence generally has the following ways it has enhanced human rights in Uganda. And one of the ways it has enhanced Human rights is that it has enhanced education. AI in education means using artificial intelligence to help students learn better, and teachers become more efficient, with AI, computers analyze how an individual student knows and what they struggle with and then offer tailor-made lessons at precisely the right pace and level. For teachers, AI can streamline administrative tasks, take over grading multiple-choice tests, or check arithmetic homework. This frees them up to do more important things, like teaching engaging lessons or mentoring struggling pupils. AI also makes it possible to design new kinds of digital learning experiences. Virtual classrooms or education systems, which (students say) are lots of fun. But beyond making things faster or more fun, there is also the promise of AI to help students who need extra support. It provides additional challenges for students who find a subject easy. AI even spots when someone might be about to give up on learning something. Then, it offers help before they hit that frustration point.
In an era of groundbreaking technological advancement, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have emerged as powerful tools with immense potential to transform global health equity, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). AI can support health workers with timely insights that inform better decisions and improve patient outcomes even in resource-constrained settings. At the health systems level, AI has the capacity to enhance interventions like disease surveillance, supply chain optimization, and diagnostics, thereby accelerating progress toward health for all. In medical research, scientists collect and analyze huge amounts of data using statistical methods. Given that this process is often time-consuming and costly, adopting AI algorithms can accelerate the research by optimizing study design, patient recruitment and revealing deeper insights about diseases and treatments, AI’s role extends to the analysis of patient records and clinical trial results to establish the effectiveness of new cancer treatments. By employing AI algorithms, researchers can pinpoint specific genetic markers that indicate which patients are most likely to have a positive response to treatment. This stratification could minimize the number of patients who would not benefit from certain treatments, leading to personalized therapies and improving the healthcare outcomes of those needing treatment.
Artificial intelligence assists in aiding communication by since AI can facilitative the translation from one language to another, with the use of artificial intelligence people are able to communicate with one another. Ai can enable translation from one language to another.
Artificial intelligence enhance security by enabling the security to quickly track criminals and arrest them before they cause harm to the innocent citizens, this therefore shows that Ai facilitates the right to life since some of the criminals may have intentions of murdering the other people in the community.
There’s a risk of exacerbating existing health disparities if AI solutions are not carefully tailored to local contexts and needs. Unintended biases in AI algorithms, limitations in the availability, quality, and accuracy of local training data, and inadequate privacy protocols could perpetuate inaccuracies and inequities in diagnosis and treatment. Overreliance on AI without sufficient capacity-strengthening and oversight could lead to loss of human touch and scientific rigor in health care delivery. Striking the right balance between these considerations is crucial to ensure AI technologies truly serve the goal of health equity.
Challenges of artificial intelligence
AI offers tremendous benefits for all societies but also presents risks. These risks potentially include further division between the privileged and the unprivileged. The presence of artificial intelligence will widen income inequality. Artificial intelligence (AI) is often hailed, especially by those seeking financing, as a transformative force capable of reshaping economies and societies. But the impact of AI on the global income distribution remains highly uncertain, while AI will, hopefully, boost macro-level productivity, it could widen income disparities with in countries, benefiting highly skilled workers, displacing lower-skilled jobs in repetitive tasks, and concentrating wealth among those who control the technology. But the bigger, and far-less explored, concern is the inequality AI could amplify between nations.
Artificial intelligence will give power to repressive regimes across the world to stifle fundamental human rights. This is because artificial intelligence will support intelligence services of governments to spy on citizens. This level of science therefore will make artificial intelligence a very bad system in intelligence services.
Erosion of the right to privacy, the right to a private life is threatened by the constant tracking and surveillance that AI systems use for data collection. The lack of transparency about how AI systems operate creates uncertainty for individuals, whose data can reveal not only their interests but also their vulnerabilities. Consequently, an imbalance of power emerges. Companies possess extensive knowledge about users, while users remain uncertain about how their data is used and whose interests it serves.
Exacerbation of existing discrimination and social inequalities; the right not to be discriminated against is at increased risk because AI systems tend to exacerbate existing social inequalities by targeting already vulnerable groups. Technologies such as facial recognition and language modelling have shown prejudice against racial and ethnic minorities, leading to injustices such as false arrests and accusations. Additionally, the opacity of and interests served by AI systems can perpetuate manipulative practices. Finally, AI systems further marginalize certain groups, such as people who are not digitally literate or people with disabilities.
Challenges to freedom of expression and information; Freedom of expression and information also face challenges. AI-driven moderation on platforms can inadvertently suppress legitimate forms of expression beyond legal requirements on hate speech and other unlawful forms of expression. Indeed, AI systems struggle to understand context and nuance within speech, and the use of bots introduces new possibilities for abuse. Moreover, systems that have algorithms with addictive designs or that create echo chambers, such as some social media platforms, can influence the ability to freely make choices and decisions without coercion or manipulation. Ultimately, this impacts on democratic participation and the free flow of information.
Structural harms affecting human dignity; Moreover, in addition to the specific human rights challenges mentioned above, AI has a profound effect on human dignity in general. Structural harms from surveillance technologies erode concepts such as human autonomy, human agency, self-governance and self-determination. At the same time, emotional recognition technologies risk dehumanizing individuals by reducing them to data points detached from their inherent worth and dignity.
REFERENCES
Alkatheiri, M. S. (2022). Artificial intelligence assisted improved human-computer interactions for computer systems. Computers and Electrical Engineering, 101, 107950.
Chatterjee, R. (2020). Fundamental concepts of artificial intelligence and its applications. Journal of Mathematical Problems, Equations and Statistics, 1(2), 13-24.
Donnelly, J. (2019). The concept of human rights. Routledge.
Ishay, M. R. (2022). The human rights reader: Major political essays, speeches, and documents from ancient times to the present. Routledge.
[1] Donnelly, J. (2019). The concept of human rights. Routledge.
[2] Ishay, M. R. (2022). The human rights reader: Major political essays, speeches, and documents from ancient times to the present. Routledge.
[3] Alkatheiri, M. S. (2022). Artificial intelligence assisted improved human-computer interactions for computer systems. Computers and Electrical Engineering, 101, 107950.
[4] Chatterjee, R. (2020). Fundamental concepts of artificial intelligence and its applications. Journal of Mathematical Problems, Equations and Statistics, 1(2), 13-24.
