PhD candidate Neil Gaikwad was recently accepted to the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) Future Leaders Summit, which will take place on April 8–10, 2024 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the campus of the University of Michigan. This year's event theme is "Responsible Data Science and AI," described further below:

"Data science and AI are having a significant impact on society in uncountable ways, leading to huge benefits in many cases. Yet, increasingly complex analytical pipelines working with poorly understood heterogeneous data sets can give rise to harms in many ways. Furthermore, there could be deleterious systemic effects such as the magnification of disinformation or surveillance capitalism. There has been tremendous recent interest in understanding and managing these concerns. The Summit will explore in-depth topics in this broad area, including, but not limited to:

• Equity and fairness, particularly in automated decision making
• Explainability of analytical results
• Reproducibility and replication of scientific results
• Systemic issues, particularly those impacting marginalized populations 
• Responsible AI in science and engineering. Established in 2022, MIDAS is home to the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship. With this, we are dedicated to promoting responsible data science and AI for natural sciences and engineering."

Neil Gaikwad's research focuses on the intersection of AI Alignment and Policy, aiming to reduce poverty and enhance the well-being of marginalized people in both developed and developing regions. He theorizes, designs, and engineers human-AI interactive systems that offer a scientific insights for understanding and improving high-stakes societal decisions. In parallel, he investigates ethical issues concerning equity, values, access, and discrimination arising in the designs of these systems, with the aim of shaping technology policy that promotes the responsible advancement of AI in society. This research particularly brings a new computational perspective to ethical decision-making within the context of digital technologies (AI-Enabled algorithmic systems in society/governance) and international development (poverty, public health, climate change). By embodying social and ethical values in technology design, he envisions a future for AI as a means to enhance human intelligence rather than seeking to replace it, ensuring that the benefits of computing are equitably distributed across society.