Amidst a global pandemic, who is AI for?

Global artificial intelligence capability is expanding fast, as is the threat of emergent infectious diseases. However, AI is not always used for the benefit of the people. Track-and-trace apps have produced serious concerns and implications for democracy and transparency during national emergencies, and their rolling out has often failed to protect those most at risk of contracting COVID-19. Stephen Roberts, Audrey Prost, and Lele Rangaka find a significant variance in how different populations and communities either benefit from, or are oppressed and disenfranchised by, AI operations aimed at containing COVID-19. The authors argue that for AI to address these inequalities, it must focus on three factors outside of technology: people, processes, and politics.