God, the Oracle, and the Nightclub Bouncer: Can human dignity be modelled in an AI-based decision support system for post-Covid health certification?

This project explores how human dignity may be impacted by an AI-based decision support system for post-Covid health certification. Drawing from law and moral philosophy, we relate the definition and substantive content of human dignity to two aspects: (1) recognition of the status of human beings as agents with autonomy and rational capacity to exercise judgement, reasoning, and choice; and (2) respectful treatment of human agents so that their capacity is not diminished or lost through interaction with or use of the technology. We identify components, sub-components, and related concepts of human dignity to translate into algorithms. These algorithms are then used to design an agent-based behavioural simulation model of the health certification process and AI-based decision support system. In a closed computer-based environment the simulation model utilises scenarios that indicate undermining or loss of human dignity (e.g. coercion, manipulation, deception, loss of autonomy). Part of the challenge is to see whether it is possible to represent human dignity as algorithms to determine behavioural changes, which can then be used as a proxy for understanding the impact of an AI-based decision support system.