Mozilla Festival 2021 (March 8th – 19th, 2021)

Mozilla Festival 2021 (March 8th – 19th, 2021)

AI for Disasters - Insights from Humanitarian and Development sectors

AI technology applied in humanitarian and public sectors poses different challenges and incentives compared to commercial sector AI. Various international organizations, such as the Red Cross and the World Bank, have been working with their client countries on post-disaster response and recovery, as well as community resilience/preparedness for disasters. As AI and increasingly available geospatial datasets provide new opportunities for monitoring disaster risks at unprecedented scale and granularity, how can we assess and design such tools to minimize potential harms emerging from AI systems? In what cases should we not use AI?

This session will feature work from a number of organizations seeking to assess the social consequences of AI tools in disaster management and develop appropriate measures to ensure these technologies support efforts to build a safe, just, and sustainable society for everyone.


We're hoping that many efforts and discussions will continue after Mozfest. Share any ideas you already have for how to continue the work from your session.:

We are hoping to build new partnerships in academic research and disaster management practice that will inform our work going forward.

How will you deal with varying numbers of participants in your session?:

The session will be a mix of short presentations and facilitated conversation amongst the panel and attendees. In the case of large number of attendees, we will take questions via chat.

a feral researcher; previously a research data scientist @World Bank to pioneer and institutionalize data science with responsible practices. also AI IRL space wrangler for MozFest 2021.