Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 19 – The Russian
government is preparing to introduce a system whereby complaints by citizens
will not be answered by the officials to which they are addressed but rather by
an artificial intelligence algorithm, thus eliminating one of the few remaining
ways ordinary citizens have to seek redress from those who rule over them.
Under existing laws and procedures,
officials are required to respond to the complaints of citizens, even if the
responses are often simply to dismiss what Russian citizens have declared. But
apparently, from the point of view of the Russian government, that places too
great a burden on the bureaucrats.
Consequently, the authorities are
preparing a single portal where citizens will send their complaints and receive
answers based on an algorithm in an artificial intelligence system rather than
at least hearing from the officials the citizens had wanted to address their
complaints in the first place.
The government says this arrangement
will guarantee “a new quality of work in the consideration of the appeals of
citizens through the use of contemporary digital technologies.” That may be true; but from the point of view
of citizens, this “new quality” may not be better (finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/rossiyanam-ogranichat-vozmozhnost-zhalovatsya-na-chinovnikov-1029515864).
Officials will certainly be spared a
great deal of time, but the algorithm of artificial intelligence to be
introduced is likely to mean, experts say, that many complaints of Russian
citizens will not be considered at all. They will simply fall into a digital
memory hole (rbc.ru/technology_and_media/19/08/2020/5f3bc7719a7947d69d29e61c).
This change has not been passed into
law; but because it is backed by the government, it almost certainly will
be. And as a result, Russians will lose
one of the few means they have to influence those who rule over them, a
development that will do nothing to limit the growth of anger and alienation in
the population.
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