India’s Tattle Co-Founder Tarunima Prabhakar on Future of AI in Addressing Harmful Online Content and Fighting Misogyny with Equitable AI

Tattle, one of India's pioneering civic tech organisations using AI to combat online gender-based violence. 

In this new episode of AI-FLUENT, Tattle's co-founder Tarunima Prabhakar shares insights into Tattle's innovative projects, including Uli, which helps women navigate harmful online content, and their Deepfake Analysis Unit deployed during India's recent elections. 

We explore the complex challenges of making technology accessible to less tech-savvy women while balancing relationships with Big Tech platforms and governments. 

Main Topics We Discussed in This Episode:

• What is the role of civic tech organisations in India?
• One of Tattle's first projects - Uli - was aimed at helping women deal with harmful and offensive online content. How does Uli work?
• What about rural, less tech-savvy women, how to help them?
• How does Tattle leverage AI and machine learning to identify and combat abusive or harmful online content? What are the key technical challenges in building such systems?
• Another of Tattle's projects is called Deepfake Analysis Unit. It was introduced during India's 2024 elections, but continues to work until now. They collaborate on it with fact-checkers and forensic experts. How does it work?
• How does Tattle work with social media platforms or other online spaces to implement its tools and what are the biggest challenges in getting these platforms to adopt Tattle's solutions?
• On relationships with Big Tech and how they can be re-imagined/re-negotiated
• On collusion between Big Tech and governments
• There's a risk that tech solutions like Uli may only reach a small, tech-savvy subset of women. How does Tattle ensure it doesn't create a bubble that excludes those who need these tools the most?
• Where do they see the future of AI in addressing harmful online content? Are there emerging technologies or approaches that could revolutionise this space?
• On the most painful lessons learnt as co-founder of a civic tech organisation
• Lifehack from Tarunima for those who want to start their own civic tech startup.
• What is Tarunima's personal criteria of impact and success?