View of Automated Government Benefits and Welfare Surveillance
An article examining how automation and AI are being used in welfare systems, arguing that digital benefits administration often reproduces longstanding patterns of surveillance, exclusion, and inequality.
The article explores the rise of the “digital welfare state,” where governments use data systems, algorithms, and automated tools to manage benefits eligibility, detect fraud, and monitor recipients.
Drawing on examples such as the Netherlands’ welfare surveillance scandals, it argues that many harms associated with AI in public administration—opacity, punitive decision-making, and disproportionate impacts on marginalized groups—are not new, but extensions of historic welfare governance practices.
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