Right to Explanation
The legal or ethical right of affected individuals to receive an understandable explanation for automated decisions.
GDPR and EU AI Act give affected individuals the right to explanation of automated decisions – XAI methods like SHAP and counterfactuals are the technical answer.
Explanation
GDPR Art. 22 gives affected individuals the right not to be subject to solely automated decisions, requiring "meaningful information about the logic involved." EU AI Act strengthens this for high-risk AI. Debate: How detailed must an explanation be?
Marketing Relevance
Every marketing AI making automated decisions about individuals (scoring, targeting, pricing) must be explainable – otherwise GDPR penalties apply.
Common Pitfalls
Legal uncertainty about scope of the right. Trade-off between explanation depth and IP protection. Explanations can lead to gaming.
Origin & History
GDPR (2018) created an implicit right to explanation (Art. 22, Recital 71). Goodman & Flaxman (2017) popularized the debate. EU AI Act (2024) specifies explanation obligations for high-risk systems.
Comparisons & Differences
Right to Explanation vs. Explainability
Explainability is the technical capability; Right to Explanation is the legal right to receive it.
Right to Explanation vs. Transparency
Transparency proactively discloses system details; Right to Explanation is granted reactively upon request.