AI and the Public's Health: What History Can Teach Us

Artificial intelligence may transform medicine through better diagnosis, prediction, and personalized treatments. But who benefits from these technologies, whose data trains them, and who bears the risks when they fail?

In this episode, historian and public health scholar Merlin Chowkwanyun, PhD, MPH, explores AI through the lens of history, public health, environmental justice, and labor. Dr. Chowkwanyun is the Donald H. Gemson Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and is affiliated with Columbia's Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health, Data Science Institute, and Department of History.

They shares their intellectual journey from an early interest in applied mathematics to a career in history and public health. As an undergraduate, they took a formative class with historian Eric Foner, a leading scholar of Reconstruction, race, slavery, and nineteenth-century American politics. The experience sparked their interest in using history to explore the "big-ticket" questions that shape our world and nation.

Although they caution that the past is not a roadmap for the future, Chowkwanyun draws thought-provoking parallels between today's enthusiasm for AI and the excitement surrounding Robert Koch's germ theory discoveries in 1882. While germ theory ultimately contributed to enormous improvements in health, they note that these advances took decades to materialize. They also argue that the rise of germ theory shifted medicine and public health toward a narrower focus on disease-causing organisms, often at the expense of attention to housing, working conditions, and other social determinants of health.

The conversation also explores how communities can help shape scientific and technological innovation. Chowkwanyun highlights bottom-up models in which communities partner with scientists to address local concerns, citing collaborations between WE ACT for Environmental Justice (https://weact.org/) and Columbia University as one example.

Listen to learn more about Chowkwanyun's forthcoming book, their views on the proper role of public health in society, and their insights into how AI may reshape work, healthcare, and the future of public life.

• All Health Politics Is Local: Community Battles over Medical Care and Environmental Health (University of North Carolina Press) - https://uncpress.org/9781469667676/all-health-politics-is-local/

• ToxicDocs [toxicdocs.org]
• NSF-funded project information: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2147334
• Toxicdocs.tools
• https://www.merlinc16.com/