AI governance in the public sector: Three tales from the frontiers of automated decision-making in democratic settings.

The rush to understand new socio-economic contexts created by the wide adoption of AI is justified by its far-ranging consequences, spanning almost every walk of life. Yet, the public sector's predicament is a tragic double bind: its obligations to protect citizens from potential algorithmic harms are at odds with the temptation to increase its own efficiency - or in other words - to govern algorithms, while governing algorithms. Whether such dual role is even possible, has been a matter of debate, the challenge stemming from algorithms' intrinsic properties, that make them distinct from other digital solutions, long embraced by the governments, create externalities that rule-based programming lacks.