#TechforGood Series, Public Interest Technology and Artificial Intelligence

In this week's #Techforgood series, the amazing Cristina Martínez Pinto, Founder of the Public Interest Technology (PIT) Policy Lab and Policy entrepreneur, shares her experience working at the intersection of Public Interest Technology and agile policymaking.?

Read here our interview with many valuable insights on policy and technology, social innovation and Artificial Intelligence, the ways technology transforms our lives, the potential of new technologies for social impact, inclusive technology policies in the region, its ethical dimension, and the need for responsible use of technology through the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. She also shares insights on the enormous transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence, numerous examples of its use, such as optimization of routes to collect garbage, optimization of energy use through the collection of data from intelligent buildings, and in the potential to contribute to the resolution of public challenges such as school dropout or diabetic retinopathy, preserving indigenous languages, and many more!?

Special recognition to the incredible team at PIT Policymaking the magic happen and joining this great initiative towards a more inclusive, responsible, and tech-savvy world.?

#WomeninTech #AIEthics #PolicyPrototyping #Ecosystemboosting #inclusivegrowth

"I like to think of a future where technology is not what is at the center but people are, we manage to overcome the digital divide, we develop digital skills that translate into an improvement of people's lives, and public, both digital and analog services are effective by leveraging technologies."

Cristina Martínez Pinto

Founder & CEO Pit Policy Lab

Nelly. Chris, thank you so much for participating; First, can you share what’s been your journey with technology issues for the common good or social impact? And how did the PIT Policy Lab start??

Cris. Thank you for the invitation Nelly; I’m excited to participate in this initiative. I am an internationalist with a vocation for public service; I had the privilege of working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was my first exposure to the world of public policy, and precisely to understanding the government's impact on people's lives. It is there where I saw first hand the importance of well-designed and evidence-based policies.

I have always been very interested in migration and gender issues, the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States, and particularly in how technology transforms our lives. However, it was back in 2015 while I was studying a master's in Public Policy at Georgetown, that I learned from data initiatives for social good. In technology policy, I identified a professional field tailored to my interests and abilities. Upon my return to Mexico, I joined C Minds, an amazing organization led by young women which focuses on exploring the potential of new technologies for social impact. I led their AI for Social Good Lab, where we worked to lay the foundations for public policy on Artificial Intelligence in Mexico.

In 2020, during my first maternity leave and almost at the beginning of the pandemic, I identified the opportunity to contextualize the field of Public Interest Technology (PIT) to the Latin American reality. This field made a lot of sense to me because, although the emphasis seems to be on technology, in reality, is the least important; technology is a tool at our disposal for solving public challenges, but what truly matters are the processes, the people and to fully grasp the notion that changes take time. This is how PIT Policy Lab emerged as C Minds' first spinout, to advance inclusive technology policies in the region. We are just celebrating our first anniversary and taking stock of some of our achievements so far!

N. Great! And what is PIT Policy Lab about??

C. We have four main areas of work: We conduct practical research and develop roadmaps, as well as public policy recommendations. We also work with companies and governments to advance the understanding of the responsible use of technology through the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We focus on life-long learning to develop educational products, seeking to develop skills and abilities for decision-makers on technology trends, digital transformation, and key socio-emotional skills (such as leadership, resilience, empathy, effective communication, among others). Lastly, we work on pilots and proofs of concept to test ideas and iterate our proposed solutions to solve specific challenges.

In the book Power to the Public, the authors mention three key elements of Public Interest Technology that we at PIT Policy Lab take up in our day-to-day activities: the use of data to inform decision-making in real-time, the design focused on people, and delivery, which has to do with allowing iterations and experimentation before taking a public policy to scale.

N. Cris, I know that you have worked on several artificial intelligence initiatives with many actors from the public sector, the private sector, academia, NGOs, companies, etc. How would you explain artificial intelligence to a person walking down the street? And what examples of AI for the common good have inspired you and kept you on this path?

C. There is a definition from Dr. Enrique Sucar that I have always liked: artificial intelligence (AI) is mathematics and computing; algorithms that reason, learn and solve complex problems from data analysis.

There are numerous applications based on AI systems that we use in our daily lives, such as browsers on our smartphones that suggest routes with less traffic, entertainment platforms such as Netflix that recommend movies, or tools such as Gmail's Smart Compose that, based on in what you are writing in your emails,? suggests words or phrases refine your writing or to complete ideas.

Being a general-purpose technology, AI has enormous transformative potential. In the public sphere, there are also numerous examples of its use. For instance, in the optimization of routes to collect garbage, in the optimization of energy use through the collection of data from intelligent buildings, and in the potential to contribute to the resolution of public challenges such as school dropout or diabetic retinopathy, as the Government of Jalisco, the Inter-American Development Bank, C Minds and the Tec are doing through fAIr LAC Jalisco.

N. When you think of the future, what do you dream of in the future? What barriers do you see overcome that you see eliminated or left behind? What comes to mind when you think of an ideal reality both globally and locally?

C. I like to think of a future where technology is not what is at the center but people are, we manage to overcome the digital divide, we develop digital skills that translate into an improvement of people's lives and public, both digital and analog services work by leveraging technologies.

Lately, I have been through a lot of paperwork for my two-month-old baby: the birth certificate, CURP, getting a passport appointment... I have traveled the entire city because it has been challenging to find information online about the steps to follow for each procedure. Fortunately, I have come across friendly staff who have guided me along the way. Still, everything has taken me a long time, including the time spent on traffic (considering the privilege of having time due to my current maternity leave to do these procedures and a car to get around). Also, for someone who works in digital, it is very frustrating that the information is not updated on the websites and that nobody picks any of the listed phone numbers. I imagine, in an ideal future, that services are simple and designed around users and their needs (particularly pregnant women and the elderly).

Also, in a not too distant future, I dream of many more organizations in the region building bridges between technology developers and decision-makers in companies, governments, and civil society to co-create an inclusive vision and a route to get there”. Of course, we know that technological advances happen faster than changes in public administration, but now is a great time to start thinking and doing things differently.

N. To the people who are always thinking about the user, who are thinking about technology and whom it's working towards, is there a story of someone or an example where you said, "technology made a big difference here", that moved you?

C. I have a fascinating example to share. Last year, we collaborated with UNESCO to conduct research on artificial intelligence focused on indigenous populations in Latin America and the Caribbean. I liked the approach because the research was framed in the Ethical Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence recently published by this institution. At first, we thought we would find little information on the subject. But, on the contrary, we found many cases of AI systems being tested in our region, from topics such as language preservation, quantification of cultural identity. At the end of the report, we included specific recommendations to include indigenous people in decisions and policymaking around the subject. The document will be published soon. Follow our social media so you get to see it as soon as it comes out!

N. Would you like to add something to finish? All your contributions and comments have been genuinely interesting. And above all, a comprehensive and human vision. As you say, many PIT Policy Labs are so necessary for the region.

C. I would love to connect with people interested in talking about the potential of technology to transform the reality of our region, people who perhaps, after reading this interview, identify themselves as public interest technologists.

PIT is a field that only a few people in Latin America know about, although it is gaining much strength in the United States. Even though many career opportunities are emerging in the PIT world, they are mostly limited to the Global North, even as technology impacts all of us. Therefore, from our Latin American experience, it is essential to participate in tech governance conversations and debates occurring worldwide and to also contribute to the growth of the PIT field through our own lens and interests.?

N. Super Cris! Hopefully, this interview will do the magic and generate more collaborations.

C. Let's see how it goes! I look forward to continuing this conversation through our networks @PitPolicy.