(In)direct control, freedom and the democratic imperative to refuse AI

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The link between artificial intelligence (AI) and substantive freedom is underexplored in current scholarship and deserves more attention. Our main thesis is that the use of AI in public institutions intercepts freedom-enabling control at citizen level and shifts it to AI systems and the actors that develop and deploy them. Building on Amartya Sen and Philip Pettit’s work for conceptual scaffolding, we argue that the citizens’ ability to exercise indirect and virtual control over democratic processes via institutional mechanisms is undermined. Thereby, the legitimacy of public decision-making is compromised and refusing AI in public institutions is justified.