Brazil’s Social Security Institute, INSS, introduced AI to its app in 2018 to speed up welfare claims and reduce red tape. However, the tool has been wrongly rejecting claims, Rest of World reports.
The office had a bad reputation due to its long lines and wait times, which accumulated nearly 2 million pending requests. Even though the AI-powered tool has helped process thousands of basic claims, it also rejected claims from those who suffer from digital literacy and live in remote areas.
The INSS adding AI to its app
While adding AI has improved efficiency, it has come at a cost, according to Edjane Rodrigues, secretary for social policies at the National Confederation of Workers in Agriculture. She told Rest of the World that the app can be complex for people like farm workers because of the nature of their work.
Some of their cases need additional paperwork, like when a piece of land is owned by one individual but worked by a group of families. Agriculture has many peculiarities, and the app is especially harming rural workers, Rodrigues says.
However, a spokesperson for INSS told Rest of the World that “Automation does not work in an arbitrary manner. Instead, it follows clear rules and regulations, mirroring the expected standards applied in conventional analysis.”
Illiteracy in Brazil’s rural areas
While nearly 34,300 rural workers were denied benefits in January, a decrease from around 53,400 the year before, the system can still not examine more complex filings, particularly those from agricultural workers and people whose jobs include more hazardous conditions and additional paperwork.
Rest of World reported that in 2022, illiteracy in Brazil’s rural areas was nearly 15%, which is three times higher than in urban areas. Additionally, illiteracy rates were higher among Black and Brown people, with 7.4% being illiterate compared to 3.4% among White people, according to IGBE.
“People out here cannot [even] work with Gmail, Facebook, Instagram,” Francisco Santana, president of the Union for Rural Workers at Barra do Corda, in the state of Maranhão, told Rest of World. “Processes are [getting] more and more automated, and society wasn’t made ready for it, especially further away, in the outskirts, for people that live in rural areas.”
Image: Jeferson Santu
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