Strange Loop

Leveraging AI for global health: benshi.ai's data-centric machine learning platform

Artificial intelligence (AI) developments in healthcare tend to focus on the needs of wealthier countries, where most research is concentrated. But it is in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the lack of training and resources for professionals hinder the access to quality care, that AI can make the biggest impact. Providing front-line LMIC health workers with recommendations and predictions to improve health outcomes can significantly contribute to reducing healthcare inequalities, for instance by helping to prevent thousands of maternal and newborn deaths that occur every day. In this talk I will discuss the role that AI-based adaptive interventions in LMICs can play in addressing global healthcare inequalities, focusing on epidemiological diseases such as Tuberculosis, HIV or Malaria.

Africa Periañez

benshi.ai, CEO

África is the founder and CEO of benshi.ai, an organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that focuses on democratizing adaptive interventions to reduce health inequalities in low- and middle- income countries. Before, África was the Chief Analytics Officer at Inditex (the largest fashion retailing group in the world, Zara owner). Previously, África founded Yokozuna Data, a Tokyo-based AI company focused to predict the individual behavior of video game players. África holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Reading, and MSc's in String Theory and Theoretical Physics from CERN and the Autonomous University of Madrid. África has been Marie Curie EU research fellow at CERN and scientist at RIKEN (Japan) and at the German Weather Service. She is co-author of 20+ peer-reviewed articles and regular invited speaker in international conferences.