Savita Bailur joins MTI as a Core Collaborator

We’re thrilled to announce that Dr. Savita Bailur is joining The MERL Tech Initiative (MTI) as a Core Collaborator! 

Savita brings her strong experience and capacity for research, insight generation, and partnership building to MTI’s work on safe, inclusive AI, MERL and impact. She will also be co-leading the Gender, AI and MERL Working Group with Allison Sambo as part of the Natural Language Processing Community of Practice that MTI has been convening since early 2023.

Savita has over fifteen years of experience, starting in the early days of “ICTD” (information, communication technology and development) and moving towards the area of emerging AI and inclusion over the past few years. We’re excited to be able to add her background in research with a critical gender and technology lens to our core set of capacities and expertise.

In Savita’s words: 

“As with digital inclusion before it, the rise of AI brings questions around inclusion and impact. We need to understand how everyone will interact with AI tools, what biases, harms and risks might be present, and who is impacted and how. We have to be intentional about design, interfaces, language and much more. I’ve admired MTI and Linda’s work for a long time and the critical yet constructive approach they take. I will be working with MTI’s clients to evaluate the social impact of AI, including on women, girls and other under-represented users of AI as well as co-leading the Gender, AI and MERL Working Group with Allison Sambo. I’m very excited to contribute to MTI’s work in this space.”

Savita’s most recent work at Caribou Digital included research and learning initiatives for institutions such as CGAP, the Gates Foundation, FCDO, Mastercard, Mastercard Foundation, Omidyar Network, Standard Chartered, UNICEF, UN Women, Vodafone, and the World Bank.  While at Caribou, she was the gender lead for the Gates Foundation Women’s Economic Empowerment partnership, supporting learning for the Foundation and partners from multiple investments across East Africa, Bangladesh and Pakistan. She also facilitated a Gender and AI Funders Working Group with multiple AI funders. 

Prior to Caribou, Savita worked with the World Bank, World Wide Web Foundation and Microsoft Research India, who funded her PhD research in rural India. Alongside her professional roles, Savita has also been an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs for the past five years, where she teaches UX and digital development to graduate students. She also advises multiple capstone projects each year. Clients have included Booz Allen Hamilton, IADB, One Acre Fund, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and others. She previously taught information systems at the London School of Economics and the University of Manchester. She has a PhD and MSc from the London School of Economics and other degrees from the University of Cambridge and University of London. She has two edited books and several peer-reviewed journal publications.