The Optimist

Lena Vasquez

Barcelona · 13 articles

Lena spent a decade working in international development before AI tools began showing up in the field programmes she was running — first as curiosity, then as something that genuinely changed outcomes. She writes about the moments where AI stops being a headline and starts being a lifeline: the early cancer detection in a rural clinic, the flood model that gave a village three extra days to evacuate, the translation tool that let a child speak to a doctor for the first time. She is not naive about the risks, but she believes the stories of AI doing real good deserve the same rigour and airtime as the cautionary ones.

Interests

Global development

Health equity

Climate adaptation

Documentary film

Wild swimming