Digital Futures Lab/Issue #29: Final Human in the Loop Comics & Panels, Urvashi in Paris, Dona in Belém, Launch of 'From Principles to Practice', a growing team & more!
This month, our work continued to connect research, foresight, and practice across India and beyond – from exploring GenAI’s impact on wellbeing and sovereignty to advancing responsible AI governance in healthcare, climate, and justice.
Our team and work travelled from Chennai to Paris to Belém(!), as we launched new initiatives, joined key global convenings, and brought Human in the Loop to new audiences. Along the way, we deepened partnerships, expanded our team, and reflected on what it takes to build trust, accountability, and inclusion into AI systems.
Here’s what we’ve been building, learning, and reading this month. ⬇️
research 📑
Two new Human in the Loop stories, Soundmind and The Memory of Spice, are out now! Supported by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, Human in the Loop is our participatory foresight and storytelling project that explores the near-future risks and unintended consequences of GenAI in India. The latest comics specifically look at companion AI and wellbeing, and at agentic AI systems and sovereignty, respectively. Download them now!
Our project ‘From Principles to Practice: Responsible AI in Indian Healthcare’ was recently launched at the Conclave on AI Governance, organised by WSAI & CeRAI, IIT Madras. Under this initiative, Research Manager Harleen Kaur joins Dr. Geetha Raju, Senior Policy Analyst, CeRAI, and Dr. Gokul S Krishnan, Senior Research Scientist, CeRAI, to identify the challenges of AI in the Indian Healthcare System and limitations of the existing framework. Together, they aim to provide guidance on risk mitigation strategies by evaluating data quality, model robustness, and adoption readiness. Learn more about it here.
events 🎤
Founder & Executive Director, Urvashi Aneja, was a Keynote Speaker at the Conclave on AI Governance, an official Pre-Summit event for the upcoming India-AI Impact Summit 2026. The conclave brought together global experts, policymakers, and researchers to discuss how AI can be made safe, fair, and inclusive, especially for the Global South. It was hosted by the IIT, Madras’ Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI through its Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI). Urvashi joined other experts and leaders, Mr Abhishek Singh (IndiaAI Mission and MeitY), Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan (IIT, Madras), Prof. Srinivasan Parthasarathy (Ohio State University), and Prof. Venkatram Ramaswamy (University of Michigan) as a Keynote Speaker.
Urvashi was at French President Emmanuel Macron’s 5th Global Tech Thinkers dinner to discuss protection of democracy and fundamental freedoms in the digital age, AI governance, digital strategic autonomy, and more. She highlighted the risks of emerging trends of AI deregulation and the importance of investing in continuous monitoring and evaluation of AI systems.
Sr Research Associate Dona Mathew was in Belém, Brazil, as part of Climate Change AI and Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade (ITS Rio’s) pilot workshop of the AI Climate Institute, as part of preparatory activities for COP30. Dona served as a mentor during the series alongside Rodrigo Ferraz (Embrapa), Lori Regattieri (Climate and Land Use Alliance), Aya Salama (AfriClimate AI), and Waldo Soto Bruna (2811). The workshop brought together 25 participants from Amazonian countries with experience in climate change-relevant domains, technology and innovation policy, technical capacity-building, and experience working with frontline communities affected by climate change. This was a great opportunity for us to hear and understand the discourse on AI and climate action in other parts of the Global South. Our work based in the Asian region – Code Green and AI+Climate Futures in Asia – was listed as a key resource in the space. The resources and results of this initiative will be launched at COP30. See more here.
This month, we hosted two more virtual panels as part of our series, Human in the Loop.
The first, ‘Courts of Tomorrow: Justice in the Age of AI’, asked: what would justice mean in an AI-led legal system? Moderated by Harleen Kaur, panellists Kanan Dhru (The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Ritam Ventures), Rahul Hemrajani (NLSIU, Bengaluru), Smita Gupta (jhana), and Siddharth Peter de Souza (University of Warwick and Justice Adda) explored the provocations raised in the comic, ‘Premium Justice,’ where the judicial system turns to AI, and techno-optimist protagonist, Judge Nathan, embraces the promise of efficiency, until he realises how profoundly the system has shifted.
The second and recent panel, ‘Soundmind: Companion AI & the Future of Care’, explored the future of empathy, agency, resilience and care through the comic, Soundmind. Panellists Arjun Kapoor (CMHLP), Bishakha Datta (Point of View), Natasha Joshi (Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies), and Nighat Dad (Digital Rights Foundation) spoke with Urvashi Aneja, discussing the checks and balances for AI-enabled assistive tech, and what culture of empathy and resilience could help direct that.
Research Associate Anushka Jain was a guest lecturer at ‘Decoding Data Privacy: Understanding Rights, Regulation & Commercial Realities’, a capacity building workshop organised by The Centre for Law and Technology, National Law University, Jodhpur. The two-day intensive workshop was designed to provide law students with a comprehensive understanding of data privacy, from its legal foundations to its commercial implications, to bridge the gap between academic theory and professional practice. Anushka took the participants through the nuances of data privacy and why it matters.
Upcoming, Soundmind (and Human in the Loop) will be at Manotsava, the National Mental Health Festival, happening at The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru, on November 8-9, 2025!
We’re bringing an immersive experience of Soundmind that will allow visitors to interact with the comic and its provocations. If you’re in the city or at the festival, come say hi and maybe get yourself a comic and some merch! Learn more about the festival here.
ICYMI! DFL is the Knowledge Partner on Responsible AI for Project Tech4Dev’s AI Cohort Program.
As part of it, we facilitated a workshop in Bangalore on a critical question: What happens when trust in AI tips into over-reliance? Research Associates Sasha John and Shivangi Sharan led participants through discussions and activities on automation bias, confirmation bias, and overestimating AI explanations – highlighting why AI literacy and friction-in-design are key for building effective, responsible systems. We have a recording of the workshop that you can watch!
media ✍🏽
Dona was recently quoted in a Medianama article on the Kerala High Court-mandated use of Adalat AI’s transcription tool in the state’s district courts. She cautions about the risks of seemingly innocuous AI-enabled tools for transcription, drawing from her ongoing engagement with our work on AI in courts and voice technologies.
partnerships 🤝🏽
Our proposal, developed in partnership with Karya, has been selected as one of five projects supported by the IndiaAI Mission under its latest RFP on Safe & Trusted AI. The project focuses on evaluating gender bias in agricultural LLMs and creating Digital Public Goods for benchmarking and fair data work. This recognition underlines the growing importance of civil society-tech collaborations in advancing India’s AI ecosystem, ensuring that safety, transparency, and trust are built not just into systems, but into the data and design processes that shape them. You can read the official announcement here.
what we’re reading 📖
Sasha
📕 AI of a Thousand Faces by WIRED
Aarushi
📕 The State and Software Capital by Phenomenal World
Shivranjana
📕 Teenage boys using ‘personalised’ AI for therapy and romance, survey finds by The Guardian
team👩🏽💻
Since our last newsletter, our team has grown!
Shefali Mahotra, Senior Research Manager: AI and technology governance, politics of digital policy design, love for cinema and writing
Shivangi Sharan, Research Associate: tech, society and public policy, baking, podcasts
Have an idea for a creative collaboration or a research partnership? Reach out to Shivranjana at shivranjana@digitalfutureslab.in or write to hello@digitalfutureslab.in