There are still people who think #ArtificialIntelligence is just something out of a movie — a futuristic technology that might eventually arrive in our lives.
Wrong.
#AI doesn’t need to arrive. It’s already here. It’s already making decisions for us.
In #Spain, more than nine million workers on temporary disability leave are being judged by an algorithm. An automated system reads health data, calculates a score, and decides who must return to work, who is suspected of fraud, who gets priority for a checkup, and who can wait. No doctor decides. No interview. No discussion.
There’s just a number. And that number defines you.
The worst part? Even the officials using the system can’t fully explain how it works. The National Institute of Social Security has refused for years to make the software’s workings public. Yet, from that black box depends the income, health, and dignity of millions of people.
And it’s not an isolated case.
In #Arkansas, #UnitedStates, an algorithm automatically slashed assistance hours for disabled individuals. No explanations. No warnings. One morning you would wake up to find half the care, half the support, half the chance to live a dignified life — simply because a system decided so.
In #Netherlands, another algorithm designed to fight social fraud flagged thousands of citizens as potential scammers based on opaque and discriminatory criteria. Living in the “wrong” neighborhood or having a foreign-sounding name was enough. Lives were ruined long before the courts ruled the system illegal. And by then, the damage was already done.
This is not the future.
It’s the present.
And it’s happening right in front of us.
The idea that we can still “choose” whether to adopt AI is a fairy tale we tell ourselves to feel better. We are not the ones choosing. Others are choosing for us — public agencies, corporations, governments — already using algorithms to decide who gets rights and who doesn’t.
And the truth is, without transparency and clear rules, with each passing day, we are handing over more and more of our freedom to automated systems.
There is nothing neutral about this.
Either we decide how to govern #AI.
Or AI will govern us.
