The Dutch tax authority ruined thousands of lives after using an algorithm to spot suspected benefits fraud — and critics say there is little stopping it from happening again.

Internet and social media companies are the public squares of the modern day. But our online public squares are at risk.

This week Human Rights Watch published a much-needed comment on the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation. As governments increasingly resort to AI systems to administer social security and public services more broadly, there is an ever-greater need to analyse the impact on fundamental rights and the broader public interest.

Call for more transparency on how such tools are used in public services as 20 councils stop using computer algorithms. The Home Office recently stopped using an algorithm to help decide visa applications after allegations that it contained “entrenched racism”.

Can transparency bring accountability to public-sector algorithmic decision-making (ADM) systems? High-profile retractions have taken place against a shift in public sentiment towards greater scepticism and mistrust of ‘black box’ technologies, evidenced in increasing awareness of the possible risks for citizens of the potentially invasive profiling.