Self-driving cars gliding aimlessly through busy streets, algorithms misdiagnosing patients through racial bias, students struggling to keep up due to their reliance on artificial intelligence.
St. Francis High School junior Kaashvi Mittal touched on all these topics during her recent talk at the Los Altos Library. Titled “Introduction to AI in Healthcare,” her roughly 30-minute presentation Feb. 18 was part of the Santa Clara County Library District’s Silicon Valley Reads program.
Mittal is the founder of Together We AI, an organization that aims to make AI accessible to everyone. She launched the project last summer for students throughout the Bay Area and India.
“A lot of people were afraid to learn about AI just because they felt like it was a very complex topic that they couldn’t understand,” Mittal said. “I really wanted to address that issue, and so that’s why I started Together We AI and I’ve been leading free AI workshops across my community in order to increase AI literacy.”
As AI weaves itself into the fabric of daily lives, Mittal said she hopes to teach the community about its promising potential for humanity, while also advising caution about the ethical concerns.
While attendance was sparse for last week’s event, held at a time when many students were on vacation, it didn’t deter Mittal from trying to enlighten the students there about AI. During the talk, Mittal likened AI to the human brain.
“AI has to step into the shoes of a human being, as it is trying to make logical decisions in order to reach a goal,” Mittal said.
She additionally discussed her personal experience creating an AI model that could detect Alzheimer’s Disease with a group of people she knew prior to the project.
“We worked on an AI model that could detect Alzheimer’s disease from low-field MRI scans, which are more affordable and used in developing nations more frequently,” Mittal said. “That was kind of one of the main things that got me really interested in AI and healthcare specifically, which is why I ended up doing this talk.”
Shivaani Kumara Vankatash, a 13-year-old who attended the talk, participated in the discussion, contributing to the ideas Mittal conveyed on AlphaFold and Google DeepMind.
“I learned a lot about the potential of AI in healthcare and the potential ethical implications,” Vankatash said afterward. “It was fascinating to learn and discuss with (Mittal) since AI is such a significant part of our future.”
Although this was Mittal’s only talk about AI in healthcare, she plans to host more AI-related events in the coming months at county libraries. The next one, focusing on generative AI, is scheduled for 6 p.m. March 25 at the Saratoga Library.
For more information, visit togetherweai.org.
