RECAP-Event-Rotman Story

Research Engagement Collaborative Alliance with Partners (RECAP) and the Rotman Institute of Philosophy are co-hosting an event on AI for health and social justice, bringing together Western researchers and diverse individual and organization experts from across a variety of communities, industries, governments and not-for-profits to share perspectives, find common ground, build connections, and explore opportunities for collaboration.

The event will consist of a panel discussion and break-out sessions, as well as a networking lunch.

Our co-chairs for the event are:

• Max Smith, Associate Professor and CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Ethics and Health Emergencies, Western University; and
• Dan Lizotte, Associate Professor, Computer Science, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University.

Panelists joining us to share different viewpoints and initiate discussion among all participants include:

• Rachel Berdan, Board Chair of Safe Space London, Board Member of Gender Equality Coalition of Ontario;
• Sarah Maaten, Director, Public Health Foundations, Middlesex-London Health Unit;
• Jay Shaw, Research Director, Artificial Intelligence, Ethics & Health, University of Toronto;
• Christine Stager, Manager of the Research and Assessment Dept., Thames Valley District School Board; and
• Mahshid Yassaei, Chief Executive Officer, Tali AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) shows immense promise for improving public health, but to reach its potential, AI must be harnessed in a positive way. While AI ethics is a hot topic, discussions have been limited in two important ways:

• They have been focused largely on the use of AI in health care, not in public and population health; and
• They have been generally focused on the concerns and challenges raised by the use of AI (e.g., biases, privacy) rather than how it can help.

With a goal of embracing AI to advance social justice in public and population health, how can policy be designed to leverage the opportunities on offer by AI technologies and how can this be accomplished in a climate of distrust, misinformation, and competing commercial (or other) interests?