hello, i'm aarav pillai (he/him)
i build and study systems at the crossroads of creative ml, healthcare ai, and internet governance. i care less about what dazzles on stage and more about what lingers in policy, clinics, and codebases; the assumptions baked in, the behaviours reshaped, and the values that turn into defaults through repetition.
i currently lead research at qinārā ai lab, designing experimental creative systems while asking uncomfortable questions about the values quietly embedded in their code. before that, i taught at the ual creative computing institute on the msc data science and ai for the creative industries and the ma/msc creative computing programmes; training the next generation to both ship systems and side-eye them.
before this, i worked as an independent data scientist on public-sector and humanitarian projects; building systems that had to work beyond ideal conditions. i am now preparing for doctoral research; a phase characterised by over-annotated pdfs, an unreasonable number of open tabs, and research questions that evolve faster than my version control can keep up.