The Guardian view on automating poverty: OK computers? Editorial

Across the world, governments are investing in machines that they hope will run their social security systems and other services more cheaply and effectively than humans. The Guardian's Automating Poverty series includes reports from the US, Australia and India as well as the UK. The roles played by technology in these countries are all different. But taken together, the articles reveal how automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence are extending their reach into people's lives through the delivery of public services. As with all automation processes, speed and efficiency provide the rationale.