The Transformation of Human Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges, Adaptations and Policy Perspectives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51660/Keywords:
Human rights, artificial intelligence, technology, digital ethics, regulation, privacy, justice, United Nations, ColombiaAbstract
Objective. This article examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and the technological era on the protection of human rights, identifying the main challenges, opportunities, and regulatory adaptation needs necessary to safeguard fundamental rights in digital environments. Method. A qualitative approach is employed, based on documentary and comparative analysis. Historical sources (such as the 1956 Dartmouth Conference), international reports (especially from the United Nations), regulatory frameworks, and recent jurisprudence (such as the 2024 T-323 ruling of the Constitutional Court of Colombia) are reviewed. The study integrates theoretical, ethical, and legal perspectives, analyzing the evolution and adaptation of human rights in the face of technological transformation. Results. The research reveals that AI has radically transformed how fundamental rights—such as privacy, equality, freedom of expression, and access to justice—are exercised and protected. Risks associated with algorithmic opacity, automated discrimination, mass surveillance, and information manipulation are identified. At the same time, AI offers opportunities to optimize judicial and administrative processes, provided that ethical principles and procedural safeguards are respected. International regulatory frameworks, such as UN reports, and national jurisprudential developments, such as the Colombian case, show progress in regulatory adaptation but also highlight the need for new digital rights and control mechanisms. Conclusion. The digital era and artificial intelligence represent a structural transformation for human rights, requiring a dynamic and multidisciplinary adaptation of regulatory frameworks. It is essential to strengthen the protection of human dignity by updating existing rights, recognizing new digital rights, and implementing effective accountability mechanisms. The central challenge is to ensure that technology empowers people and does not deepen inequalities, ensuring that technological innovation always serves humanity and its fundamental rights. The recognition of digital space as a domain of human rights, promoted by the United Nations, underscores the urgency of this collective and collaborative task.
Downloads
References
Jobin, A., Ienca, M., & Vayena, E. (2019). The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1(9), 389-399. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0088-2
Mittelstadt, B. D., Allo, P., Taddeo, M., Wachter, S., & Floridi, L. (2016). The ethics of algorithms: Mapping the debate. Big Data & Society, 3(2), 2053951716679679. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679679
United Nations Human Rights Council. (2021). The right to privacy in the digital age (A/HRC/48/31). https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_HRD-9970-2016147
Cath, C. (2018). Governing artificial intelligence: Ethical, legal and technical opportunities and challenges. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 376(2133), 20180080. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0080
Binns, R. (2018). Fairness in machine learning: Lessons from political philosophy. Proceedings of the 2018 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 149-159. https://doi.org/10.1145/3287560.3287598
Wachter, S., Mittelstadt, B., & Floridi, L. (2017). Transparent, explainable, and accountable AI for robotics. Science Robotics, 2(6), eaan6080. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.aan6080
Floridi, L., & Cowls, J. (2019). A unified framework of five principles for AI in society. Harvard Data Science Review, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.8cd550d1
O’Neil, C. (2016). Weapons of math destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. Crown. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2017.1295812
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. (2020). Getting the future right – Artificial intelligence and fundamental rights. https://doi.org/10.2811/774355
Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1ghv45t
Smuha, N. A. (2021). Beyond a human rights-based approach to AI governance: Promise, pitfalls, plea. Philosophy & Technology, 34, 561–586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-020-00403-w
Latonero, M. (2018). Governing artificial intelligence: Upholding human rights & dignity. Data & Society. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3265912
Susskind, J. (2021). Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198825616.001.0001
Raso, F. A., Hilligoss, H., Krishnamurthy, V., & Dahan, M. (2018). Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights: Opportunities & Risks. Berkman Klein Center Research Publication No. 2018-6. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3287090
Taddeo, M., & Floridi, L. (2018). How AI can be a force for good. Science, 361(6404), 751-752. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat5991
United Nations. (2021). Roadmap for Digital Cooperation. https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210053675c007
Nemitz, P. (2018). Constitutional democracy and technology in the age of artificial intelligence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 376(2133), 20180089. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0089
Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin’s Press. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2018.1444231
European Commission. (2021). Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act). https://doi.org/10.2861/95850
Fjeld, J., Achten, N., Hilligoss, H., Nagy, A. C., & Srikumar, M. (2020). Principled Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-Based Approaches. Berkman Klein Center. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3518482
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. PublicAffairs. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2019.1685035
Whittlestone, J., Nyrup, R., Alexandrova, A., Dihal, K., & Cave, S. (2019). The Role and Limits of Principles in AI Ethics: Towards a Focus on Tensions. Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 195-200. https://doi.org/10.1145/3306618.3314289
AI Now Institute. (2018). AI Now Report 2018. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3378731
Veale, M., & Binns, R. (2017). Fairer machine learning in the real world: Mitigating discrimination without collecting sensitive data. Big Data & Society, 4(2), 2053951717743530. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951717743530
United Nations General Assembly. (2021). The right to privacy in the digital age (A/RES/76/179). https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_HRD-9970-2016147
Mittelstadt, B. D. (2019). Principles alone cannot guarantee ethical AI. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1(11), 501-507. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0114-4
Binns, R., Veale, M., Van Kleek, M., & Shadbolt, N. (2018). Like trainer, like bot? Inheritance of bias in algorithmic content moderation. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 12(1), 405-414. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v12i1.14993
Leslie, D. (2019). Understanding artificial intelligence ethics and safety. The Alan Turing Institute. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3240529
European Parliament. (2021). Artificial intelligence in criminal law and its use by the police and judicial authorities in criminal matters. https://doi.org/10.2861/95850
Dignum, V. (2019). Responsible Artificial Intelligence: How to Develop and Use AI in a Responsible Way. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30371-6
Wachter, S., & Mittelstadt, B. (2019). A right to reasonable inferences: Re-thinking data protection law in the age of Big Data and AI. Columbia Business Law Review, 2019(2), 494-620. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3248829
Tufekci, Z. (2015). Algorithmic harms beyond Facebook and Google: Emergent challenges of computational agency. Colorado Technology Law Journal, 13, 203. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2742317
United Nations. (2019). UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210053675c007
Gasser, U., & Almeida, V. A. F. (2017). A layered model for AI governance. IEEE Internet Computing, 21(6), 58-62. https://doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2017.4180835
O’Neil, C. (2016). Weapons of math destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. Crown. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2017.1295812
Kroll, J. A., Huey, J., Barocas, S., Felten, E. W., Reidenberg, J. R., Robinson, D. G., & Yu, H. (2017). Accountable algorithms. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 165(3), 633-706. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2765268
United Nations. (2021). Our Common Agenda – Report of the Secretary-General. https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210053675c007
Brundage, M., Avin, S., Clark, J., Toner, H., Eckersley, P., Garfinkel, B., ... & Amodei, D. (2018). The malicious use of artificial intelligence: Forecasting, prevention, and mitigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.07228. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1802.07228
Future of Humanity Institute. (2018). The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1802.07228
Cowls, J., & Floridi, L. (2018). Prolegomena to a white paper on an ethical framework for a good AI society. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3198732
United Nations. (2019). The Age of Digital Interdependence. https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210053675c007
Bostrom, N. (2014). Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199678112.001.0001
Schmidhuber, J. (2015). Deep learning in neural networks: An overview. Neural Networks, 61, 85-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2014.09.003
Latonero, M. (2019). Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights: Opportunities & Risks. Data & Society. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3265912
United Nations. (2021). Human Rights and Artificial Intelligence: An Urgent Need for a Rights-Respecting Approach. https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210053675c007
AI Now Institute. (2019). Discriminating Systems: Gender, Race, and Power in AI. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3378731
Human Rights Watch. (2019). China’s Algorithms of Repression. https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_HRD-9970-2016147
Wachter, S., Mittelstadt, B., & Russell, C. (2018). Counterfactual explanations without opening the black box: Automated decisions and the GDPR. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 31(2), 841-887. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3063289
European Data Protection Supervisor. (2020). A Preliminary Opinion on data protection and scientific research. https://doi.org/10.2811/29447
United Nations. (2022). Human Rights in the Digital Age. https://doi.org/10.18356/9789210053675c007
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Alberto Rojas Rios (Autor/a)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.