Tech, Power and Perspective: Davidson College Grad Wins Gates Cambridge Scholarship to Study AI Ethics Through a Global Lens

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Gates Cambridge, the University of Cambridge’s prestigious postgraduate scholarship program for the most socially engaged and academically brilliant students from around the world.

“The pandemic was a big factor in my experience,” Kandhari said. “Taking Davidson classes back home in India, I was operating through a different lens, and it gave me more interest in studying the Internet and technology. I still wasn’t sold on the value of AI, but I was starting to think differently.” 

The experience grew into a senior thesis topic for the sociology and gender & sexuality studies double major — researching how digital public service delivery and internet access shaped privileged versus marginalized groups’ experiences of the pandemic.

Her interest in these areas has only deepened since graduating. After her original post-graduate employer, located in New York City, announced a hiring freeze, the freshly degreed Wildcat’s plans of getting some U.S.-based work experience and then applying to graduate school changed. She instead moved back to India and began working at a social impact consulting firm advising non-profits, followed by a move to the Mumbai-based organization Point of View (POV). 

“At POV, I worked on projects building knowledge at the intersection of gender, sexuality and technology, specifically in the Indian context,” Kandhari said. “This has given me a thorough understanding of how the constituencies we work with — women from low-income backgrounds, sex workers, LGBTQ people and persons with disabilities — use and are impacted by technology. Through this work, I understand there are several factors that impede digital freedoms, including the gendered digital divide, family surveillance of use of digital devices, threat of technology-facilitated gender-based violence and cyber fraud, as well as improper safeguards for privacy and data protection.”

The experience exposed Kandhari to issues around ownership of technology, the consequences of how that ownership is connected to power and contributes to inequalities in the world.

“This work has been crucial to my knowledge and understanding, and it’s made me a better researcher, specifically in a non-academic organization,” she said, “which is much different from the research I did at Davidson.”

When Kandhari graduated from Davidson, she was recognized with the W.E.B. Du Bois Award for Excellence for her grasp of theory and methodology and excellent work through independent research. This award goes to a student demonstrating the skills and priorities that are central to sociology as a field of study and arena of advocacy.

Several courses and professors inspired Kandhari’s path, including Assistant Professor of Sociology Aarushi Bhandari. 

“Yashita’s intellect is a gift to the world,” Bhandari said. “I knew from the very first time she took a class with me — in 2020, during the pandemic, online — that she would go on to become one of the most important voices of her generation in the critical technology space. This exceptional achievement is one of many to come in her bright future.” 

Building on all she learned at Davidson and at POV, Kandhari became interested in niche graduate programs. She learned of the Cambridge program through an expert talk at POV that focused on the many futures of technology and how people have agency to determine how technology will affect our future. 

“The program is interdisciplinary, like Davidson, and the students will come from various backgrounds, including computer science or law — some will already be working in AI fields,” she said. “I have a preliminary understanding of AI from my current role, and I’ve completed a few workshops and become involved with a critical reading group about AI. The field is changing every day, so there’s always more to learn.”

Kandhari’s understanding of AI is constantly evolving, and how she feels about it evolves, too. She expects that pattern to continue during the nine-month program.

“I hear people talk about AI as the great equalizer,” she said. “Like we all have the same access, we can all become creative writers and so forth. But people said that when the Internet was emerging, that we’d all finally be on the same page. We all know that’s not the case. Technology is largely English dominated, and most of the data online is already biased, so I’m interested in exploring all these topics further. I’m going into the experience with as much of an open mind as possible. If you write an article about me in a year, I’m sure I’ll be saying something new!”