Lara Lewington discusses AI and health to an audience of young entrepreneurs
The Black British Initiative (BBI) and SOAS hosted BBC journalist and technology reporter Lara Lewington, who presented the BBC’s flagship technology show Click and Panorama’s Beyond Human: Artificial Intelligence, to discuss AI and its impact on health.
Addressing a student audience, who are all actively engaged in a start-up, Lara shared her insights from her new book, ‘Hacking Humanity’, described as an ultimate guide to the tech-driven health revolution that we are approaching.
Pointing out that AI technology could have a significant and positive impact across health services both in the UK and across the world, Lara shared insights on AI that could quantify depression. She added that there has been huge inequality in medical trials for years as different ethnicities will experience different risks – and if done properly, AI could have the power to address inequality.
The student audience consisted of entrepreneurs developing their own business acumen, which included; working on food pop ups, creating wedding hair for Black and African women, a financial advisory firm specifically for women and a music business that coordinated the choir at last Royal Wedding.
The MBA 30 was launched at SOAS in 2023 in partnership with BBI and provides essential business skills and networks to underserved black entrepreneurs. The course name marks 30 years since the death of Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racially motivated attack.
The programme provides a four-week ‘accelerated MBA’ course that aims to equip students with fundamental knowledge and expose them to practical experiences to design and run businesses in an intense study format consisting of three days of on campus classes and 6 half-days of online classes.
BBI recently won a Future ED Award for Best School of the Year. The awards celebrate excellence in education for Black African and Caribbean heritage communities in the UK.
