The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has changed how people interact, but it also poses a global risk to human dignity, according to new research from Charles Darwin University (CDU).

Lead author Dr. Maria Randazzo, from CDU’s School of Law, explained that AI is rapidly reshaping Western legal and ethical systems, yet this transformation is eroding democratic principles and reinforcing existing social inequalities.

She noted that current regulatory frameworks often overlook basic human rights and freedoms, including privacy, protection from discrimination, individual autonomy, and intellectual property. This shortfall is largely due to the opaque nature of many algorithmic models, which makes their operations difficult to trace.

The black box problem
Dr. Randazzo described this lack of transparency as the “black box problem,” noting that the decisions produced by deep-learning and machine-learning systems cannot be traced by humans. This opacity makes it challenging for individuals to understand whether and how an AI model has infringed on their rights or dignity, and it prevents them from effectively pursuing justice when such violations occur.

“This is a very significant issue that is only going to get worse without adequate regulation,” Dr. Randazzo said.

“AI is not intelligent in any human sense at all. It is a triumph in engineering, not in cognitive behaviour.

“It has no clue what it’s doing or why – there’s no thought process as a human would understand it, just pattern recognition stripped of embodiment, memory, empathy, or wisdom.”