It’s not so scary
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear “artificial intelligence?” Is it Terminator robots coming to destroy humanity? Getting texts from companies to buy products after you signed into Facebook?
There are a variety of applications for AI to benefit humanity, and not just thinking of better ways to sell us products or increase surveillance. People like Neil Sahota are working to change the fears surrounding AI by building systems designed to solve major problems like poverty, health care disparities, climate change and financial inequity.
As an IBM master inventor, professor at UC Irvine, and author of “Own the A.I. Revolution: Unlock Your Artificial Intelligence Strategy to Disrupt Your Competition,” Sahota is also a lead artificial intelligence adviser to the United Nations and is helping find ways for AI to provide solutions and prevent future pandemics.
Even now, AI is being used to create systems that can impact how treatments for COVID19 are used. One such AI tool was developed at UC Irvine last year to help predict the probability of patients needing ICU care. This involved collecting the data of patients to get common symptoms of the coronavirus as well as how to accelerate treatment and care options. And that’s just scratching the surface for AI tools. Other examples include AIpowered walking sticks for the blind, tools to help those who can’t speak, and health care apps that use a cell phone to detect diabetes, tuberculosis and skin diseases through the camera and microphone.
Sahota’s work has been focused on two key areas: people’s behavior and microsolutions. He believes things can be made energy efficient, but people need to change their behavior first. Microsolutions are what people would be willing to do based on their interests values and behaviors. In order to find solutions, he uses what’s called artificial empathy.
“You can tell some people that adopting a houseplant will help the environment, but not everyone is willing to do that. The onesizefitsall approach doesn’t really work,” said Sahota. “If they won’t do that, you have to engage them with what they would do. The AI finds microactions people could take and can create personalized messages for each individual to connect to the microaction they can take with what’s most important to them.”
One of the United Nation’s goals is to save lives by improving vehicle safety. It’s estimated that of the 20 million people who die from auto accidents every year, 90% of the fatalities can be reduced with artificial intelligence. Olli, a selfdriving, clean energy bus created by Local Motors, holds up to 12 people and has a low carbon footprint with the materials used to make it. It was constructed using an AI technique called generative design that combs through millions of different design simulations and presents the top 10 or so best options. It’s a big step for manufacturing — AI can find solutions to reducing waste and using more ecofriendly materials.
Sahota says one of the biggest misconceptions around AI is our expectations of it.
“Many people think AI knows everything when it only knows what we teach it,” said Sahota. “The way we teach it is important. The rules we give it on how to make decisions determine how it develops. The AI will replicate the same implicit bias of people if they are not careful.”
This scenario has already played out in real life. From facial recognition software wrongly identifying nonwhite people to resumereading software overwhelmingly choosing men over women as ideal candidates, it’s all based on biased input.
That’s why it’s important to refine the ways we communicate with each other so we can avoid bias. AI can help us do that by analyzing our speech. While it may sound scary and dystopian, Scott Sandland, CEO of Cyrano.ai, assured that the technology is being used in a positive way. His company created an AI that analyzes Zoom calls to have more meaningful conversations and provides feedback on the best ways to reach people.
“We’re not looking at personality profiles, we’re saying people are different depending on the context and you need to know who you are talking to,” said Sandland. “Many people are looking to build broadcast platforms, and we wanted to build a listening platform that you can plug it in everywhere, safely and securely with data privacy in mind.”
Fred Werner, one of the creators for the AI for Good Global Summit, is the head of the Strategic Engagement Division at the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union Agency. The summit was created five years ago, made available online and built on the premise that by 2030, humanity needs to create progress for sustainable development goals in areas such as reducing global warming, poverty, hunger and gender equality.
One of the big challenges for AI experts has been the lack of data exchange. “More data doesn’t automatically lead to more data sharing, it’s in silos,” said Werner. “Solving the data puzzle is a foundational problem.”
Another concern is potential job loss. He says there is some validity to the fear, where it’s been estimated that further developing AI and automation could leave millions of people unemployed. However, that number doesn’t account for the net gain on new jobs that will be created as a result of the advancements in technology.
Werner has used the summit to include not just AI experts and U.N. agencies; nonprofits, writers, painters, athletes and musicians were also invited to share their work and collaborate. He says adding creative thinkers to the summit helps lower the fear factor for people and allows them to be more openminded to the possibilities of technology.
“People have a great understanding of problems on the ground and connecting them with AI innovators helps them to understand the context, have a common framework and work in the right direction.”
While AI has been portrayed in the media as a scary new technology that will eventually overtake humanity, the reality is quite different and in some ways, much more optimistic. The systems will never be perfect, but collaboration and sharing data will get us much closer to a sustainable future for everyone.