Entrepreneur: How to Embrace AI for Enacting Humanitarian Change

Artificial intelligence may be replacing humans for many workplace tasks, but could also be employed to make compassionate choices, suggests Gideon Kimbrell for Entrepreneur. The Center on Artificial Intelligence in Society, at the University of Southern California, is developing algorithms to assist with initiatives – including use of social media and other online data to encourage HIV testing and find strong candidates to serve as youth peer leaders. “Why not just use standard statistical models to make these selections?” Kimbrell writes. “Unlike traditional approaches, AI systems can reveal novel ways of looking at social data, finding patterns or indicators that social scientists may overlook.” He recommends determining areas of need, encouraging active education by partnering company staff with PhD students and other researchers, and starting small and local. Kimbrell concludes that artificial intelligence, with human direction, can be a force for good. – YaleGlobal