Community-Centred Priorities for AI in Africa
Community-Centred Priorities for AI in Africa
Embedded Files
Date and Time TBA
Date and Time TBA
Abstract
Despite infrastructural challenges, African entrepreneurs and researchers are working hard to ensure that we are being included in the development trajectories of artificial intelligence and its applications. Efforts to build datasets in African languages and to support our contexts are underway, but the task is large. And unequal resources are pushing our efforts in neocolonial directions, giving advantage to corporate profit over the priorities of our communities. In this talk I put forth co-design and speculative design as methodologies to support inclusive community-centered design. I will share insights from our research on co-design readiness, maternal and child health, and community wireless networks. We propose community-led efforts around creating contextually aware datasets in local languages, data-aware implementation of services, and more human-centred technology designs.
Bio
Melissa Densmore is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Cape Town, director of the Human Computer Interaction Lab at UCT, and coordinator/speaker of the Hasso Plattner Institute Research School at the University of Cape Town. She is chair of the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) Research Ethics Committee, and has served on multiple research ethics committees at UCT. Densmore’s research explores community-led digital innovation in the context of community wireless networks as well as maternal and child health and well-being, with a special interest in how to conduct community-based ICT4D research with respect and care. Prior to joining UCT, Densmore completed a postdoc at Microsoft Research India and worked in Silicon Valley as a software developer for various startups. Densmore completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in Information Management and Systems, has an MSc in Data Communications, Networks and Distributed Systems from University College London, and holds a BA in Computer Science from Cornell University.
Page updated
Report abuse