Even though US and European lawmakers may disagree on how to regulate tech, they seem to think similarly about one issue - the need to ban AI-powered social scoring. The EU is negotiating the AI Act, which will ban member states, and maybe even private companies, from implementing such a system.
Social scoring is generally perceived as a practice associated with authoritarian governments (specifically China), where citizens are being ranked based on their behavior and punished for undesirable behaviors (e.g. not paying bank loans or stealing). However, apart from a few contentious experiments at local level in China, there is no country-wide social scoring system.
While framed as a threat stemming from authoritarian regimes, the West is running various systems that rank and penalize people. Automated decision-making systems are being deployed, playing a huge role in deciding the fate of many people. For example, credit-reporting algorithms affect access to private goods and services like cars, homes, and employment. There are also algorithms adopted by government agencies, which impact access to public benefits like health care, unemployment, and child support services.
Original article on MIT Technology Review
