In the midst of increasing concern over widespread misuse of data and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI), I have a vision to redeem those technologies and apply them in ways that accelerate the spread of the gospel around the world. I'm still in the early stages of my mission work, and these projects are just taking shape. However, I can already share some exciting details about what I'm doing:
Seeker Multiplication Modeling - I'm working with a coalition of Christian missions organizations to apply machine learning and AI techniques to targeted media outreach and discipleship. Specifically, this means finding individuals around the world that are seeking Christ online and that may be otherwise isolated from Christian influence. The goal is to personalize interactions with those individuals, connect them to local believers, and drive local discipleship movements.
Translation/Language - I'm also serving as a data scientist and advisor with SIL International (https://www.sil.org/), an organization that is already developing some amazing technology to accomplish the work of Bible translation around the world. I'm helping them leverage their language, geospatial, and other data to better understand how people are engaging with scripture, and I'm advising SIL leadership and other employees on matters related to statistical analysis, analytics, AI/ML, data infrastructure, etc.
FaithTech, Code for the Kingdom, and Community Organizing - I was the primary organizer of the 2017's Code for the Kingdom (C4TK) Chicago Hackathon, and I'm currently working with FaithTech (http://faithtech.com/), C4TK (https://codeforthekingdom.org/), and others to organize a kingdom-focused hackathon in Chicago in 2018. Through these and other events, I hope to catalyze new uses of technology to help those in need and multiply disciples of Christ around the world.
Learn more about me here: https://www.datadan.io
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwhitena
Subscribe to my Practical AI podcast: https://changelog.com/practicalai
Learn some AI skills from my courses: https://learn.datadan.io/
