Podcast: Assessing evidence on the effectiveness of humanitarian AI use cases with Humanitarian AI Today

The MERL Tech Initiative Co-Founder, Linda Raftree, and our Core Collaborator, Quito T. have been interviewed for Humanitarian AI Today, a podcast series focusing on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence. The series highlights the work of leaders, developers and innovators advancing humanitarian applications of AI from across the tech and humanitarian communities.

For this episode, which focused on assessing evidence on the effectiveness of humanitarian AI use cases, Linda and Quito discussed challenges associated with assessing the effectiveness of humanitarian aid activities and activities incorporating applications of artificial intelligence alongside Alexandra Pittman (CEO of Impact Mapper), Suzy Madigan (Responsible AI Lead with Care International), and Gary Forster (CEO of Publish What You Fund).

The discussion touches on challenges associated with collecting, mapping, measuring and assessing data on humanitarian needs and aid activities and activities incorporating uses of AI, and on fundamental questions surrounding crisis contexts, stakeholder engagement, operations, reporting, data transparency, uses of technology and AI, and limits on what the sector can actually deliver around impact.

You can listen to the conversation below (and it’s also available here):

This podcast panel discussion was originally recorded in 2024 to help inform an accompanying discussion focusing on real-world AI use cases and their impact on humanitarian action co-produced by Humanitarian AI Today, the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub and Elrha for a special six-part panel discussion series critically examining different aspects of humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.