Home Office AI tool may influence immigration decisions, critics say
The Guardian|November 11, 2024
A Home Office artificial intelligence tool that proposes enforcement action against adult and child migrants could make it too easy for officials to rubberstamp automated life-changing decisions, campaigners have said.
Robert Booth
Home Office AI tool may influence immigration decisions, critics say

As new details of the AI-powered immigration enforcement system emerged, critics called it a "robo-caseworker" that could "encode injustices" because an algorithm is involved in shaping decisions, including returning people to their home countries.

The government insists it delivers efficiencies by prioritising work and that a human remains responsible for each decision. It is being used amid a rising caseload of asylum seekers who are subject to removal action, currently about 41,000 people.

Migrant rights campaigners called for the Home Office to withdraw the system, claiming it was "technology being used to make cruelty and harm more efficient".

A glimpse into the workings of the largely opaque system has become possible after a year-long freedom of information battle, in which redacted manuals and impact assessments were released to the campaign group Privacy International. They also revealed that people whose cases are being processed by the algorithm are not specifically told that AI is involved.

The system is one of several AI programmes UK public authorities are deploying as officials seek greater speed and efficiency. There are calls for greater transparency about government AI use in fields ranging from health to welfare.

Esta historia es de la edición November 11, 2024 de The Guardian.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición November 11, 2024 de The Guardian.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE THE GUARDIANVer todo
The Guardian

US politics Rivalries break out ahead of inauguration

Internal rivalries in Donald Trump's team have spilled into public view with Boris Epshteyn, a top adviser to Trump, being accused of asking potential administration nominees to pay fees in exchange for promoting them to the president-elect.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
Canada Trudeau calls emergency talks to discuss threat to exports
The Guardian

Canada Trudeau calls emergency talks to discuss threat to exports

Justin Trudeau has called an emergency meeting with provincial premiers across Canada after the US president-elect, Donald Trump, threatened a 25% tariff on imports from the United States' northern neighbour and largest trading partner.

time-read
2 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Warnings of trade war after Trump's tariff threat against China, Canada and Mexico
The Guardian

Warnings of trade war after Trump's tariff threat against China, Canada and Mexico

Donald Trump's threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has sparked warnings of a bitter global trade war and drawn sharp responses from Canada, China and Mexico, with the latter threatening retaliatory tariffs.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Ruling on definition of 'women' challenged in Scotland
The Guardian

Ruling on definition of 'women' challenged in Scotland

The supreme court has been urged to uphold \"the facts of biological reality rather than the fantasies of legal fiction\" in a case brought by Scottish campaigners about how women are defined in law.

time-read
2 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
The Guardian

TfL to fine firms whose ebikes block pavements in London

Dockless ebike companies will be fined when their cycles block roads and spaces outside underground stations under a crackdown by Transport for London.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
Police accused of forcing Gypsy children to leave city on trains
The Guardian

Police accused of forcing Gypsy children to leave city on trains

Representatives from Gypsy and Traveller communities have said that they want \"accountability not apologies\" after children attending the Christmas markets in Manchester were \"forced on to trains\" by police.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
Mother killed herself but wrote 'I was murdered', court hears
The Guardian

Mother killed herself but wrote 'I was murdered', court hears

A young mother killed herself and left a note saying \"I was murdered\" after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, a court heard yesterday.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
Five survivors found a day after tourist boat sank in the Red Sea
The Guardian

Five survivors found a day after tourist boat sank in the Red Sea

Egyptian naval forces recovered four bodies and rescued five more people from the Red Sea a day after a large tourist boat sank in rough waters, officials have said.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
Manager and seven staff at backpacker hostel held over tourist deaths
The Guardian

Manager and seven staff at backpacker hostel held over tourist deaths

Police in Laos have detained the manager and seven staff of a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng following the deaths of six tourists from a suspected mass methanol poisoning.

time-read
2 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
McQueen chronicles century of protest as portrait of Britain
The Guardian

McQueen chronicles century of protest as portrait of Britain

After retelling the story of the Blitz from a new angle, Steve McQueen's next project is an alternative photographic history of protest and campaigning in Britain, spanning a century from the Suffragettes to the Iraq war protests.

time-read
2 minutos  |
November 27, 2024