Digital Aliens – Excluded in a Connected World

Digitalisation is seen as the driving force behind progress. Yet as our world becomes increasingly interconnected and our daily lives increasingly automated, a new form of inequality is emerging.

Digital systems are reshaping our society, but more and more people are at risk of being left behind and becoming invisible. Millions of people struggle with digital interfaces, while automated processes shape public administrations, labour markets and social welfare systems. At the same time, these systems often lack transparency, without the possibility of appeal, and without human interaction. Algorithms evaluate, filter and decide. They reproduce existing forms of discrimination, exacerbate them, or create new ones. Who bears it and who can intervene? Experts such as legal scholar Sandra Wachter, AI researcher Abeba Birhane and political scientist Geraldine de Bastion analyse the power dynamics of the digitalised world. In Brussels the focus is on the limits of political control; in Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun offers insights into new technological visions. In France the film reconstructs an algorithm scandal at the social security agency; in Germany, Ireland and Estonia it seeks out alternative models: education, solidarity and digital self-empowerment. "Digital Aliens - Excluded in a Connected World" is a political assessment of the present and a question for the future: Can a fair digital society for all really exist?

The 90' version is only available in Austria and Switzerland.