Constitutional amendment; prohibiting the use of any system using behaviorial attributes to deny individual rights.
Impact
If enacted, SJR38 would add a new section to Article II of the Oklahoma Constitution, safeguarding individuals from discrimination based on predictive analytics or artificial intelligence systems. This amendment would effectively ban any practices that assess and score individuals based on their behaviors, aiming to preserve personal freedoms that may be threatened by algorithmic decision-making. As a result, the bill could significantly influence how state laws interact with emerging technologies that rely on data analytics, potentially limiting their application in areas such as credit assessment, employment qualification, and law enforcement profiling.
Summary
SJR38 is a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution aimed at prohibiting the use of behavioral attributes to deny individuals their rights. The resolution seeks to ensure that no governmental body—whether it be the Legislature, the Governor, or the judiciary—can implement a system that uses such attributes as a basis for limiting individual rights. The underlying concern driving the bill is the potential for systems akin to social credit scores that could assess individuals' actions and behaviors to determine their eligibility for rights, thus implicating issues of privacy and fairness in governance.
Contention
Discussions surrounding SJR38 reveal notable divisions. Proponents of the bill argue that it is a critical measure for protecting citizens from invasive surveillance and discrimination by the state through biased algorithms. They emphasize the need for legislative action to preemptively address ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence in governance. Conversely, critics may question the implications of such a ban on innovative practices that could enhance efficiency in government services and question whether it might impede legitimate uses of data analytics that do not violate individual rights.