Building Resilient Climate Futures: Exploring AI in Climate Action
Can AI and other technological tools affect the future of climate action in Asia? And how can you assess these nuanced climate futures?
Researchers Dona Mathew and Sasha John delved into the intersection of AI and climate action, while highlighting the Digital Futures Lab's research. Participants discovered how to spot trends and signals that hint at future climate scenarios through hands-on activities. The facilitators helped participants to imagine and design the climate futures using foresight methodologies and creative thinking exercises.
About the Researcher
Sasha John is a dedicated researcher and curator at the Digital Futures Lab, where she focuses on exploring the intersection between technology and communities in the Majority World. With a focus on people-first narratives, Sasha uses partnerships, expertise, and arts to perform critical research on the effects of technology.
As Public Engagement Manager, her work focuses on communicating DFL’s research to audiences within and outside of policy and academic circles through reports, creative outputs, events and workshops. In addition to her job at the DFL, Sasha John acts as the Project Coordinator of the Responsible AI Impact Lab (RAIL). RAIL is a pioneering capacity-strengthening effort aimed to provide social impact organisations with the knowledge and resources needed to appropriately integrate AI technology into their work. Sasha has previously worked on projects focused on assessing and mitigating gender bias along the LLM value chain in India, building responsible ed-tech in India and navigating AI’s role in the arts.
About the Researcher
Dona Mathew, a trained lawyer, specialises in qualitative and quantitative research and legislative drafting. At Digital Futures Lab, she explores AI's societal impact in India and Asia, focusing on climate change and legal institutions.
Previously, she worked at the Centre for Criminology and Victimology and the Theodore Eisenberg Centre for Empirical Legal Research at the National Law University, Delhi. At the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, she was part of the Accountability Initiative’s work on education policy reforms. Additionally, she served as a Consultant for UN Women India, focusing on policy issues related to women's economic empowerment.