Progress in machine learning and artificial intelligence has spurred the widespread adoption of automated decision systems (ADS). An extensive literature explores what conditions must be met for these systems' decisions to be fair. However, questions of legitimacy -- why those in control of ADS are entitled to make such decisions -- have received comparatively little attention. This paper shows that when such questions are raised theorists often incorrectly conflate legitimacy with either public acceptance or other substantive values such as fairness, accuracy, expertise or efficiency. In search of better theories, we conduct a critical analysis of the philosophical literature on the legitimacy of the state, focusing on consent, public reason, and democratic authorisation. This analysis reveals that the prevailing understanding of legitimacy in analytical political philosophy is also ill-suited to the task of establishing whether and when ADS are legitimate. The paper thus clarifies expectations for theories of ADS legitimacy and charts a path for a future research programme on the topic.

翻译：机器学习与人工智能的进步推动了自动化决策系统（ADS）的广泛应用。大量研究探讨了这些系统决策需满足哪些条件才能被视为公平。然而，合法性问题——即ADS控制者为何有权做出此类决策——却相对较少受到关注。本文表明，当此类问题被提出时，理论家们常错误地将合法性与公众接受度或其他实质性价值（如公平、准确性、专业性、效率）混为一谈。为寻求更优理论，我们对关于国家合法性的哲学文献展开批判性分析，重点关注同意、公共理性与民主授权这三个维度。分析表明，分析政治哲学中对合法性的主流理解同样难以适用于判定ADS是否以及何时具备合法性。因此，本文厘清了ADS合法性理论的研究期待，并为该领域的未来研究规划了路径。