Absolutizing Prevention: Big Data, AI, and ‘the Future as a Threat

Political security concepts – such as preemption – require technologies that can anticipate the future as accurately as possible. However, such policies can only be enforced by absolutizing the concept of prevention. A ‘collective acceptance of the future as a threat’ is required for the resulting measures to be widely accepted. In this context, data-driven forecasting methods are key, while big data and AI as tools for anticipating and proactively preventing future crises, conflicts, crime and terrorist threats are on the rise, along with broader military and security service trends aimed at controlling and stabilizing the future. In light of this, Christian Heck calls for a re-evaluation of the ethical and legal foundations of such measures and discusses their implications for the rule of law, international law, and human rights, arguing that it is essential to understand the cultural and social consequences as well as the limits of these preemptive systems in order to preserve social freedom and participation in democratic processes.

read full Article in Berliner Gazette

in german: https://berlinergazette.de/de/absolutierte-praevention-big-data-ki-und-die-zukunft-als-bedrohung/

in english: https://berlinergazette.de/absolutizing-prevention-big-data-ai-and-the-future-as-a-threat/