Artefatti regolativi digitali, intelligenza artificiale e diritti dell’utente

The debate on the impact of artificial intelligence on personal freedom and fundamental rights has intensified in recent years, particularly with the rise of generative AI, which has brought both opportunities and challenges to the fore. However, as highlighted in the field of technological and digital regulation, digital artifacts not based on generative AI can also exert a profound influence on individual freedom. By examining the functioning of certain software tools designed to regulate online interactions and by distinguishing between deontic and adeontic (non-deontic) regulatory artifacts, it becomes possible to identify critical issues that do not necessarily depend on the adoption of intelligent technologies. After an introduction, this chapter is structured in three parts: the first briefly reconstructs the debate on the impact of artificial intelligence on user rights; the second introduces the distinction between deontic and adeontic digital regulatory artifacts and analyzes its usefulness in assessing the compatibility of regulatory tools with user rights. Finally, the third part examines two cases of digital regulatory tools belonging to these two different categories of artifacts, which, while not employing AI, nonetheless shape freedom of expression in different ways.