How to Embrace AI for Enacting Humanitarian Change
Source: Gideon Kimbrell
Artificial intelligence is one of the heralds of a smarter tech world -- but could it help us be a more compassionate one, as well?
The University of Southern California thinks so. Last fall, it christened its Center on Artificial Intelligence in Society, dedicated to deploying AI toward humanitarian ends. In particular, it's aiming toward two social entrepreneurship challenges: the Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative from the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
How can AI help these noble projects? One of the first efforts is an AI-based tool that will use social media and other data to pick good candidates for peer leaders among homeless youths around Los Angeles. The algorithm has already been shown to help increase HIV testing among that population.
Why not just use standard statistical models to make these selections? Unlike traditional approaches, AI systems can reveal novel ways of looking at social data, finding patterns or indicators that social scientists may overlook. These systems can make measurable differences to at-risk communities -- and tech entrepreneurs are the movers who will take those first essential steps.
Software for a better world
Building on an open-source codebase and leveraging tools such as IBM Watson's backend, the best solutions for social problems will likely come from those who are local to the issues and who understand them firsthand.
But openness won't be the only hallmark of this new wave of AI. In fact, a new way of thinking of AI is "IA," or intelligence augmentation, and it already has applications in the humanitarian sphere. For example, Global Empowerment Mission has deployed an AI to assist with community planning in Haiti.
Related: Virtual Reality Is Proving a Powerful Vehicle for Disaster Relief, Social Causes
Beyond IA, algorithms can perhaps even give us a kind of "EA," or emotional augmentation, to benefit some of our most vulnerable citizens' mental well-being. Companion robots using AI have been shown capable of providing emotional support and monitoring for ailments such as mental-health issues. The PARO robot -- a cute, AI-driven baby seal -- is an official treatment option of the U.K.'s National Health Service and is already in use with dementia and Alzheimer's patients worldwide.
Why join with humanitarian causes?
Today's conscientious tech leaders should look for opportunities to engage with social entrepreneurship for several reasons. First is, of course, because it's the right thing to do. Another is that the time is now: "Doing well while doing good" has never had a better chance of going high-tech.
Partnering with these causes also can help with public relations for AI. People still hold a certain amount of mistrust toward what amounts to superintelligence -- particularly if it is emotionless and happens mysteriously in silicone. The "Terminator" and "Matrix" series don't exactly help that perception.
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