AI for Good

Since its inception, artificial intelligence has become an unavoidable part of our daily lives. Like many other quickly developing technologies, AI has been put to use without a full understanding of its capabilities and consequences. We spend a great deal of time worrying about the ways in which AI is negatively impacting our world. We catalogue the symptoms of its biases; we wring our hands at the way it can unfairly favor one group over another; we’re frightened by how radically it is overlooking our communities.

But not everything with artificial intelligence is doom and gloom. In fact, there is infinite potential for AI to do good in the world. AI is boosting productivity and bolstering the economy, making us healthier and smarter, pushing us in new and exciting directions. It’s good to be wary of new tech. Even better to harness it for good.

Artificial intelligence is improving our climate maps and models, giving us a more accurate and detailed understanding of the ways in which our world is changing—and giving us deeper insight into ways we can stop those changes. We can simulate damage from hurricanes and melting icecaps, giving us more information with which to prepare accordingly.

Given the way the Covid-19 pandemic has restructured our kids’ learning environments, it was inevitable that AI would be recruited to meet the change. AI has been helping educators connect with their students easier through online schooling and education management systems. Additionally, AI helps teachers and administrators better learn from educational statistics—useful for policy making and curriculum adjustments. Using AI, we can cultivate personalized learning plans for each student. Everyone gets exactly what they need.

These days, it’s impossible to scroll through social media without encountering an instance of propaganda, or fake news. AI algorithms are becoming increasingly skilled at identifying lies on the Internet and filtering them off your feed.

AI is helping medical professionals fight illness and disease on a daily basis. By focusing on diagnosis and detection, AI tools are making it easier and easier to find illnesses earlier, stopping them before they metastasize. Improvements to the way we research health data will make advancements happen faster and more frequently – think better treatments and cures, more accurate cancer screenings.