Explainable artificial intelligence and algorithmic transparency: challenges and advances in automated decision-making
Keywords:
Explainable artificial intelligence, algorithmic transparency, automated decisions, digital ethics, technological governanceAbstract
The growing reliance on automated systems in fields such as healthcare, justice, finance, and public administration has intensified the need to understand how artificial intelligence (AI) models influence high-impact decisions. Explainable AI (XAI) responds to algorithmic opacity by promoting mechanisms that enable the interpretation, auditing, and justification of intelligent systems’ predictions or recommendations. Beyond technical performance, explainability becomes an essential ethical and legal principle to foster public trust, mitigate discriminatory biases, and protect fundamental rights. In this context, notable progress has been made in interpretability techniques, ranging from intrinsically transparent models to post-hoc tools that visualize internal patterns. Nevertheless, significant challenges persist, including the lack of standardized metrics, the trade-off between performance and explainability, and the pressing need for robust regulatory frameworks defining responsibilities and usage boundaries. The consolidation of XAI represents a key inflection point for algorithmic governance, enabling safer, fairer, and more understandable interactions between humans and automated systems.
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