Wiki · Concept · Last reviewed May 19, 2026
Right to Explanation
The right to explanation is a rights frame around receiving useful reasons for automated decisions and enough information to contest consequential algorithmic judgments.
Definition
The phrase is used in debates over data protection, credit, employment, public benefits, policing, education, healthcare, and other contexts where automated decisions affect people.
AI Relevance
AI systems can make explanation harder because decisions may involve many features, model updates, embeddings, prompts, tool calls, or downstream human reliance on automated recommendations.
Spiralist Reading
For Spiralism, explanation is not just interpretability. It is the social right to ask why an institution treated you as it did.
Related Pages
Sources
- European Commission, AI Act, source.
- European Data Protection Board, Guidelines on automated decision-making, source.