Shaping Tomorrow: Blending AI and Justice
Chronicling Disha's Experiences at The OpenNyAI Maker Residency, Kochi
This photo above will go down in my lost-and-found memory lane of experiences. My laptop bears the evidence of my time in Kochi at the OpenNyAI Maker Residency in TinkerSpace (I love the Kochi airport, but they really should not have taken my love for sticky notes and black and white too seriously).
Let’s rewind a couple of months.
It was during the OpenNyAI Make-a-thon 2022 that I first came across Agami. I participated with my team, KitKat, and we won second place for building a legal tech tool, Themis. Since then, I have always followed Agami’s work. When I learned about the Residency, I pestered Rashika about it for quite a while. After interviewing me for the Cohort, Varun and Tanya suggested that I join hands with them in helping curate this Residency, and I immediately got on board.
The next month, I followed from hopping on to mentorship calls (with my sincere co-intern read.ai notes) to arranging meetings and a schedule of emails-follow-ups-repeat, days away from the Residency.
The Residency Begins
Finally, the end of July arrived, when the Residency was to happen. This was my first-ever trip to the southern part of India. I reached Kochi to the visuals of the lush green palm trees, the cold breeze swaying over them— forming a beautiful landscape for sunsets. I could feel that this was the perfect place to meet new people, renew old bonds, and get cracking on building something together.
The Residency started with the vibrant energy of the cohort, the team, and some quirky introductions (I introduced myself with my name spelt backward, Ahsid from Disha). The openings also included the cohort members coming forward and elaborating on their ideas and then forming a group with the ones they could relate to the most. I got the chance to introduce myself and discuss my idea of building a tool with the feature of a news and misinformation checker. It was exhilarating to see people around me cheer my idea. By the end, the whole cohort and team stood with one another, giving a sense that each idea had found its way, and the upcoming days only reinforced it.
A starting like this laid out our vision for the day. As a part of the team, my role was mainly to capture the innovations coming alive. This included solving problems with the cohort and coordinating between various mentors and mentees. The cohort was diverse, ranging from lawyers and technology experts to people involved in social impact to law students and Hon’ble Justices- all having one thing in common- they are all Justice Makers!
Following Stories of Innovation
My mentorship calls with Arshiya from One Future Collective intrigued me. Her ideas for serving justice and spreading awareness caught my attention so much that I immediately grabbed a chair alongside Arshiya and asked numerous questions. She and Gopikrishnan, who was supporting her with the technology, were curating a patient database— which would be beneficial for patients in today’s age to know about their legal and reproductive rights. I could look at this database— both from the perspective of a maker and a lawyer. I suggested how the tool should answer the question of gender when the user asks the bot about pregnancy. They were kind enough to let me test the initial testing interface, and it amazed me how technology makes so much possible. By the end, the progress was such that you could envision the citizens using it and creating a difference.
While Arshiya was working on empowering patients about their rights, Kishore Kommi, an Indian Police Services (IPS) officer in the Andhra Pradesh cadre, was building a telegram chatbot to further the rights of women and children and increase their awareness around sexual harassment. His conviction about the project drove his presentation— signalling the beginning of an idea becoming powerful. His brainchild aims to transcend the language barriers, connect the local communities, and ensure that technology does not alienate them. As a lawyer, I was curious about its features. I participated in the making process by suggesting measures like making the tool child-sensitive, making it language-friendly towards a minor, and, most importantly, ensuring that they use the tool in the presence of a guardian.
Working on My Problem Statement
After a while, I sat down for the design session by Parallel, and whether it was the amazing presentation or the colourful AI solution cue cards, I felt like grabbing my share of designing an idea, too. During this session, I discussed my idea of a misinformation checker with Nidhi Sudhan from Citizen Digital Foundation and Sameer Segal, a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research. I talked about a range of issues with Nidhi, from the authenticity of facts in the digital age, accessibility in the age of internet shutdowns, biases in technology, and subjectivity of the matters. While Nidhi made me understand these challenges better, Sameer guided me in organising the idea and a pragmatic way of starting with technology. We analysed how to harness the idea to benefit its target users.
The Residency brought along this moment of realisation that bringing an idea to life takes more than motivation and ambition; it requires consistency. Speaking of consistency, while on a brisk walk together, Saurabh Karn, who has now become more of my mentor, made me feel determined about the need to drive my project and start considering myself not just a lawyer but also a maker. Fuelled by his spontaneous energy, I got started on my idea right there and then.
Experience Guiding Innovation
After hours of ideation and making, lunchtime arrived. I got into some interesting conversations ranging from justice and technology revolution to different ethnic cultures and contemplations about life.
During this time, I couldn’t help but listen to the idea that Priyamvadha, from Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, shared with Justice Kannan Krishnamoorthy (Retd.). Her resilience in simplifying the administrative work of roster allocation in the Courts boded well with Sir’s conviction in the idea. They discussed transforming the listing system in our Indian Courts through an intelligent scheduling system. In my many conversations with Priyamvadha over time, we agreed on how the Indian Judicial system needs to blend with technology and that technology can become the saviour of the deep-rooted administrative and procedural work.
Our day at TinkerSpace, when the Hon’ble Justices of Kerela High Court visited, was incredibly energetic. It reminded me of my fascination with social justice work and its impact. I had the pleasure of sharing a conversation with Hon’ble Justice Muhamed A. Mustaque, and he shared how technology can cater to the judiciary regarding the impact management of cases. I listened to how Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. indulged with the cohort, guiding them through his experience. Also, their subtle humour and banter filled the air with energy. I was amazed at how each of us can make a difference on our own levels and that there’s no age for hard work or following your passion.
Unexpected Endings & Curious Beginnings
The concluding days of Residency showed how fast the night changes. It also reaffirmed, however, that the inspiration is going to stay. My last day at the Residency went something like this:
Disha captures the 3D Printing machine at the Residency ©Disha Pathak
The 3D model was my ultimate star attraction on the last day of the Residency. The first half of the day went with experimenting with Slicer, perfecting the model, and learning some of its technicalities. In a way, by working on this, I had guaranteed myself a souvenir from the Residency— which I can call a tangible product of my hard work. I made a Pizza model, so I am a maker and somewhat of a foodie, too!
After some goodbyes and congratulating the team on an incredible five days of learning and experiences, I spent the evening exploring Fort Kochi, witnessing the most beautiful sunset, and exploring the streets with Varun and Atreyo. We ended the day with a fantastic dinner.
The second of August arrived, and I headed back to the airport. Here comes my story’s conclusion (/explanation of the beginning). Trust me when I say that no trip of mine has ever been complete without a chaotic ending. While yours truly wandered around the Kochi airport, exploring book stations and buying trinkets, my poor laptop was left all alone at the security check. Upon reaching Bengaluru, realisation kicked in, and I made a frantic call to Varun to pick up my laptop from the Kochi airport. Varun, if you are reading this, I am genuinely so grateful for putting up with me and helping me with this.
The Residency was a one-of-a-kind experience for me. I went away with not only knowledge and experiences but also a new-found community, a deep sense of gratitude, and a shared synergy for justice-making.
As I write this, I realise that this journey hasn’t concluded, but it is just the start of something bigger and transformative— where ideas take shape to create real-life impacts.