The Center for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP)
International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB)
organized a talk titled
AI in Healthcare
by
Radhika Radhakrishnan
Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society, New Delhi
2:00 pm on 13th September 2019 (Friday)
Venue: Room 310, IIITB campus
26/C, Electronic City, Hosur Road, Bangalore
About the talk: In my talk, I will critically question the dominant narrative of “AI for social good” that has been widely adopted by various stakeholders in India (including the private sector, non-profits, and the Indian State) from a feminist standpoint. Specific to healthcare in India, such a narrative has been employed towards solving development challenges (such as a shortage of medical practitioners in remote regions of the country) through the introduction of AI applications targeted towards the sick-poor. Through my research and fieldwork, I analyse the layers of expropriation and experimentation that come into play when AI technologies become a method of using ‘diverse’ bodies and medical records of the sick-poor as ‘data’ to train proprietary AI algorithms at a low cost in the absence of effective State regulatory mechanisms. I argue that structural challenges (such as lack of incentives for medical practitioners to join public healthcare) get reframed into opportunities to substitute labour (people) by capital (technology) through innovation of “spectacular technologies” such as AI. Throughout the talk, I will also highlight the methodologies I used to conduct this research.
Speaker Bio: Radhika Radhakrishnan (she/her) – I work as a Programme Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, New Delhi, India, where I do research on feminist approaches to regulating Artificial Intelligence. I previously worked with the United Nations Internet Governance Forum as a Consultant on Gender and Access. I have a Master’s in Women’s Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science Engineering from M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore. Outside of my day job, I spend my free time protesting on the streets as a women’s rights activist and moonlighting on Twitter as a raging feminist with no chill.
Twitter: @so_radhikal