This collection is for readers who understand that technology is never only technical.
Across knowledge systems, health care, youth culture, public institutions, finance, and local governance, the contributors show how emerging technologies redistribute power, labor, care, and accountability—and how people closest to the consequences work to make harm visible before systems learn how to count it.
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You do not need to be a technologist to enter this book.
You need to recognize what happens when institutions adopt systems before they have named the human work required to govern them.
Edited by Christine Haskell, Ph.D.
Editor and contributing author
Contributors / Fields of Practice
A map of the places where AI governance becomes human work.
01
African Knowledge Systems
African Intelligence vs. AGI
Wakanyi Macharia-Hoffman + Dr. Annette Markham
Netherlands / Global African frameworks
What counts as intelligence changes when technology is judged through lineage, reciprocity, moral obligation, and care for what comes after.
02
Finland / Structural Absence
Herstory as an Analytic Lens
Kira Sjöberg
Helsinki, Finland
AI systems do not only erase marginalized knowledge; they can distort it, down-rank it, or make it appear less credible than it is.
03
Youth & AI Safety
Governing the Heart of the Machine
Christine Haskell, Ph.D. + Leah Jacobs
Washington, U.S. / New York, U.S.
When young people absorb the emotional costs of AI-mediated systems, relational harm becomes a governance issue—not a private family problem.
04
Companion AI
Companion AI and the Future of Friendship
Tricia Friedman
British Columbia, Canada
As AI companions reshape friendship and care, this chapter asks which boundaries institutions must define before platforms define them by default.
06
Women’s Health AI
Beyond Bias
Dr. Johnna D. Wesley + Heather Stegner + Dr. Heather H. Ward
California / Idaho / Washington, U.S.
A health AI system must be accurate, but also open to pause, contestation, redesign, or refusal before harm is scaled.
05
Mentorship & Relational Care
AI Doesn’t Mentor Like We Do
Dr. Emaneli “Emi” Barresi
Texas, U.S.
Mentorship is relational infrastructure for attention, trust, accountability, and the development of judgment.
07
Nigeria / Financial Systems
Empowering Women for Sustainable Financial Innovation in Nigeria
Prof. Nubi Achebo, Ph.D.
Nigeria / South Africa
Financial systems exclude women when they define valid evidence too narrowly. This chapter asks what becomes possible when economic participation is made visible and contestable.
08
Hyperlocal Governance
Local Government and AI
Sarah Bland
Washington, U.S.
Local governments need more than vendor promises; they need ways for staff, residents, and oversight bodies to shape how AI enters everyday public work.
