Understanding the nature and risks of welfare algorithmic harms

With the rise of the use of networked technologies and algorithms comes the intensification of surveillance. As welfare and social assistance systems adopting AI, algorithms, and automation, the poor are increasingly subjected to new modes and intensified ways and systems of surveillance and regulation. This presentation will share what the AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Incidents and Controversies Repository (the AIAAIC Repository) have identified as algorithmic incidents in the welfare system around the world, their nature, risks, and impacts. This presentation for the 2024 Sherman Centre Graduate Residency is a smaller part of my doctoral thesis that aims to understand how Asian solo mothers experience welfare surveillance and how do they identify and make use of their agency in this surveillance-heavy contexts.

Presenter Bio

Anabelle Ragsag is a PhD student at the School of Social Work who is interested in the politics and technologies of social assistance. Originally from Mindanao, southern Philippines, Anabelle is a community organizer based in Hamilton. Through her program development and evaluation work; teaching, speaking and writing; and parenting, she tackles systemic inequities by building the capacity of racialized women, to collaborate with other women, to challenge structures, and to create spaces within and outside those that exclude them.

Presentation Recording

Coming soon.

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