SHADE Newsletter 30th November 2023

Welcome to the latest edition of the SHADE newsletter! 

SHADE is a research hub with a mission to explore issues at the intersection of digital technologies/AI, health and the environment. It is guided by a fundamental question: How should the balance between AI/digital enabled health and planetary health be struck in different areas of the world, and what should be the guiding principles?

The SHADE newsletter comes out every two weeks, bringing you a selection of the latest news, podcasts, publications, upcoming events and opportunities in the SHADE space.

In this second edition, along with news, events and opportunities, we share what we’re reading and listening to, and how this illuminates the SHADE space through the lenses of One Health and Green Tech.

We hope you enjoy it!

Please tell us what you like, what you don’t like and what you think is missing at [email protected].   

News

• Check out the Climate Q&A tool, built to make climate science more accessible whilst limiting, and providing transparency on, its own carbon footprint.

• Tensions between ethical principles and profit motives are in the news for both COP28 and OpenAI.

• On the ethical front the Clinical Research ecosystem does not escape criticism and is encouraged to get on board with net zero.

• SciDevNet brings us the latest on AI’s ‘water footprint’ and how this is impacting areas already suffering from water scarcity.

• A US survey from Deloitte shows that people are generally optimistic about generative AI’s potential to improve healthcare access and affordability. The survey also shows that many are already using it, particularly the uninsured.

• Wired highlights a complex dilemma for a green search engine in the generative AI revolution.

• As AI facilitates the production of fake clinical trial data, the suggestion is that more AI forms part of the solution.

What we’re listening to

• A conversation around AI and its environmental impact from the GreenIO podcast, with Data for Good in France and Dataphoria in Greece.

• Modelling Carbon Aware Software - from the Green Software Foundation’s Environment Variables podcast. This episode undertakes a deep dive into the issues around load shifting in space and time - or how to maximise the use of green energy in computing. If you want something to get you in the zone, check out this Volts podcast from earlier in the month first.

What we’re reading

• A BMJ opinion piece calls for more work on the ethics underpinning One Health 

• The implementation of One Health as a core change to the health care framework, and indeed the very definition of health, has been called for as a matter of urgency, with the ongoing absence of a comprehensive One Health surveillance system illustrating the gap between what governments say and the actions they take.

• One Health, One Digital Health and Learning One Health Systems: A call on the informatics community to “embrace and advance the One Health concept as a professional and ethical responsibility”.

• A One Health approach to public health and climate change has surfaced at UK government level, with the challenges of implementing this acknowledged. There are some examples of the implementation of a One Health approach - for example in Famine Early Warning Systems. It will be interesting to see how AI transforms this in the same way it is doing for weather forecasting.

• A call for the unification of the One Health and Planetary health research communities

• Measuring Carbon is Not Enough - Unintended consequences - This piece explores just some of the challenges of measuring the carbon footprint behind IT workloads in the cloud.

Events

• The Global Digital Health Forum takes place between December 4th and 6th.

• Register soon for Health Data Research UK’s hybrid conference in Leeds on the 5th and 6th of March 2024.

• If you’re in Dubai on Sunday December 3rd book a green pass to Day 4 of COP28 on Health/Relief, Recovery and Peace.

• If you’re in Paris on December 8th you can purchase a ticket for the Green IO conference and hear the latest on how to decarbonise your Tech.

Opportunities

• Are you interested in tracking the evolving links between climate change and health? Check out these vacancies on the Lancet Countdown Academic Leadership Team - application deadline January 8th 2024.  

• Apply for funding for consortia-led research into Responsible Artificial Intelligence (RAI) - RAI UK Keystone Projects Announcement Call

We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. If it has been forwarded to you, and you would like to receive future editions, you can subscribe here.