Algo­rithms, spe­cial forms of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, are influ­enc­ing our mod­ern world more and more. They analyse a lot of data in a short time and dis­cov­er new, sur­pris­ing infor­ma­tion and con­nec­tions. We humans sim­ply place our trust in the poten­tial of algo­rithms because our minds are not able to under­stand the com­plex­i­ty of infor­ma­tion pro­cess­ing and smart devices often make our lives more pleas­ant by reliev­ing us of the cog­ni­tive work. How is this dis­rup­tive tech­nol­o­gy chang­ing our every­day life, our soci­ety and our democracy?

In the lat­est of her Duet inter­views, Dr Cal­daro­la, author of Big Data and Law, and Sophie Borchert dis­cuss the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a shift from democ­ra­cy towards an algo­c­ra­cy tak­ing place.