Hi!
I am a technology policy researcher with interest in transnational governance of artificial intelligence (AI), ethics of information and media economics. I look at the impact of digital technologies, especially AI, on societies from a human rights, openness, inclusive access and governance perspective.
My work with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Digital Innovation and Transformation section spans research, advocacy for human centered AI, policy advice and development of human and institutional capacity building programmes for the governance of digital technologies. Starting Fall 2020, I am teaching a course on Digital Government at Sciences Po, Paris. This course explores the discussions around government as a platform (GaaP) through a case study on Digital ID systems.
I have a Masters in Economics and Public Policy from Sciences Po, Paris, where I studied as a Charpak Scholar and graduated summa cum laude. But much before that I loved building race cars as a mechanical engineer.
In the past, I have worked for a Member of Parliament in India, consulted for the City Government of Vancouver, REN21, Paris and founded a multilingual education start-up that published a book in Madia Gond. My writings have been published in natural and social science journals and have appeared on media platforms including The Economic and Political Weekly, The Wire, HuffPost, India Spend, Business Standard, The Quint and Scroll.
Projects
Capacity and Policy Building Advice
AI and the Rule of Law
Survey: Launch of Survey of Judicial Operators on AI and the Rule of Law
Co-developed the survey of judicial operators around the world in seven languages to engage with them on their learning needs with respect to AI and the Rule of Law.
Language Datasets in Africa
Project: Cracking the Language Barrier for a Multilingual Africa
Developed the concept note for
UNESCO’s project on the development of datasets in low resource languages
in Africa
AI Decision Makers' Toolkit
Project: Building Institutional Capacity in Public Policy Development in the Field
Designed the architecture of a new toolkit for policy makers to learn about best practices, model use cases and policy instruments for AI governance
Advocacy
AI Policy Dialogue
at WSIS forum in Geneva
UNESCO advocates ROAM in AI for journalism and media development
April, 2019
Assessed the opportunities and challenges of AI development in journalism and media
with UNESCO’s Internet Universality ROAM principles.
AI Policy Dialogue at
for Good Summit in Geneva
Artificial intelligence and the information sphere
May, 2019
A discussion focused on the changing norms of knowledge generation, access and use with their implications on human rights, openness and inclusivity.
AI Capacity Building Needs Assessment
Survey for Governments in Africa
UNESCO launches AI capacity building needs assessment survey for Africa
March, 2020
Designed within the framework of the ‘United Nations system-wide strategic approach and road map for supporting capacity development on artificial intelligence’.
International Co-operation
Open for Good Alliance
Partnership: Launch of the Open for Good Alliance to stimulate the use of localized data in Artificial Intelligence system
Facilitated UNESCO joining the Open for Good Alliance to promote access to localized training data through its project on African languages
GPAI
Partnership: UNESCO joins Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence
as observer
Supported UNESCO’s participation in the
Global Partnership on AI
(GPAI)
For a full list of my projects and publications, please access them from below.