Rahi Patra
Last Name
Patra
First name
Rahi
Email
rahi.patra@unisg.ch
3 results
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Item type:Publication, AI Errors in Health? The problem of scientific bias and the limits of media debate in EuropeType:journal articleJournal:Morals and MachinesVolume:2Issue:1 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Negotiating alternative AI futures: a critical engagement with European civil society organizations, tech entrepreneurs and journalists(2024-09-26); ; ; With the popular diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in our society pushed by the rise of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, the critical debate around AI has exited expert and technical circles. The existing debate on AI is often hyped and polarized and characterized by either catastrophic or utopian points of view, which are directly overshadowing the discussion of the social disorder emerging from the concrete harms for which AI systems are already responsible (Barassi et al., 2022). Currently, most of the debate around AI is thus driven by the discussion of "existential threats" which are mostly speculative in nature, and not by a coming to terms with already documented and visible issues, such as discrimination, biases, or data (in)justice perpetuated or amplified by prone-to-errors algorithmic systems (Ryan-Mosley, 2023). With the aim of writing an "history of the present" (Aradau and Blanke, 2021) of the social construction of AI in this crucial moment, in this paper, we thus investigated how three crucial social groups are coming to terms with the fallacies of AI systems and how AI "errors" could also serve as starting point for negotiating our possible futures with AI systems (Barassi, forthcoming). Through 105 in-depth interviews with civil society representatives, tech entrepreneurs and journalists based in Europe, this paper aims at 1) mapping the concerns of three of the most engaged groups involved in the debates around AI. Additionally, through the analysis of their views and discussions of the various "errors" of AI, the paper also wants to 2) contribute to the analysis of how the critical responses to AI harms are being currently expressed and negotiated by different critical societal actors. At the same time, the paper also discusses 3) alternative AI futures, where expert views and takes on the technology are addressed towards the building of alternative future scenarios, where both dystopian and techno-fetishist views get challenged in their most evident weaknesses and rhetorical shortcomings. Overall, the paper reacts to hegemonic and normative takes on AI and its futures, looking beyond the utopia/dystopia juxtaposition, which is usually presented as ineluctable by different stakeholders (Bory, 2019). The results presented in this paper emerge from "The Human Error Project", a multidisciplinary research project launched in 2020 with the goal of studying how different social actors are making sense of AI systems through an analysis of where the debates around the errors of these systems are driving our collective and societal construction of AI. Blending anthropology and media studies approaches and methodology, "The Human Error Project" and this paper position themselves among the growing literature and research field of critical data and AI studies.Type:conference paper - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Mistrusted identities and surveillance of Dalits in India: The case of GPS-enabled tracking of sanitation workers(2024-09-27)While the discriminatory or intrusive aspects of algorithmic and data-driven technologies have gained attention in the West, the critical inspection of these technologies remains limited within the Indian context, especially with regards to the issue of caste. Scholars have highlighted how the historical caste-based ideologies and biases have the potential to be further encoded and solidified in the design and logic embedded within algorithmic and data-driven technologies. For instance, Sambasivan et al. (2021) highlighted how often, due to the biased idea of caste and religion, the data fed into the safety apps used for scoring and measuring the safety levels of particular locations might indicate neighborhoods resided by Dalits and Muslims as unsafe. This in turn can lead to greater surveillance of these neighborhoods. While Mishra (2021) explained that the bodies of Dalits are often assumed to have "mistrusted identities" and the deployment of biometric technologies often target these communities to gather information about them. These technological artefacts then, serve as an apparatus for verifying the truth and ensuring trustworthiness of the so-called "suspect identities for the state" (Mishra, 2021, p. 60). While these scholars highlighted the tendency where casteist ideologies and biases can also influence data-driven decision systems and their deployment, there remains a gap in exploring how the use of data-driven technologies, such as for surveillance purposes can create conditions that potentially confine Dalits to their historically inferior caste-based identities. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower (Foucault, 1995, 2003), I situate this paper at the intersection of Critical Caste Studies (CCS) (Ayyathurai, 2021) and Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies (postcolonial STS) (Anderson, 2002, Ashcroft et al., 2005). In this paper, I will specifically focus on the case of GPS-enabled smartwatches used for tracking sanitation workers - predominantly comprising of Dalits to highlight how contemporary surveillance technologies can reproduce techno-colonial practices resulting in caste-based social marginalization of Dalits. I will present the results of 25 qualitative interviews that I conducted during my 3-month ethnographic fieldwork in India. The participants for the interviews are divided into two groups: 1) NGO officials working on Dalit rights and empowerment in India and, 2) Dalit sanitation workers who have been subjected to GPS-enabled smartwatches used for tracking their movements and productivity within the city of Chandigarh, India. Based on the analysis of this data, I will highlight how the deployment of surveillance technologies, like GPS-enabled smartwatches to track the movements of sanitation workers exposes Dalits to targeted surveillance and violates their human rights. In doing so, their bodies are not only appropriated and scrutinized for data extraction but are also assumed to have "mistrusted identities" that requires to be kept under check and control.Type:conference speech