Towards Worker Voice in Responsible AI for Healthcare

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a significant push for responsible AI deployment in healthcare settings. Many theoretical frameworks have been proposed, calling on healthcare administrators to use participatory approaches and prioritize the well-being of the frontline workers and communities impacted by AI. With increasing integration of AI tools into healthcare settings, it is important to understand whether and how these notions of responsible AI are panning out in practice. In this talk, I will present my research conducted in partnership with a healthcare workers union in California on their experiences contending with AI in their workplaces. I’ll describe the limits of responsible AI when healthcare administrators take a top-down approach to AI governance, and how community assets and structural constraints shape how workers respond. I will end by discussing avenues for community-engaged research to support building more capacity for worker-led AI governance.

Bio: Naveena Karusala is an Assistant Professor in Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. Her research is on human-centered AI and health/wellbeing in underserved communities. She examines how we can design for more just care infrastructures that better recognize the labor, autonomy, and rights of care workers and care recipients. Her work has received Best Paper at ACM CHI and Diversity and Inclusion Recognition at ACM CSCW. She was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for Research on Computation and Society, and holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington. Naveena also serves as Vice-President for Communications on the ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee.

This seminar is both online and in-person:
Zoom Link