"The heart of machine learning is all about problem solving. In fact that’s what algorithms do – they’re set up in order to find a better a solution to a given problem. For example, trying to upgrade one time donors to monthly donors or increase retention of donors over a period of time.” ~ Graham Covington, Engaging Networks

AI for Social Good

You may wonder how AI can help our society. You likely heard about AI for Social Good - often abbreviated as AI4SG. It is a concept and a growing movement to harness AI powers for improving lives of people.

AI has shown great progress in its ability to solve problems and predict upcoming issues.

Some of the largest corporations like Google and Microsoft were at the forefront of this movement and are investing heavily into AI4SG. For example, Google is applying AI to the world’s biggest challenges. They do this through research, engineering and by supporting some of the projects around the globe that offer promise for AI to improve people’s lives. For Google, AI for Social Good is a program that uses AI to solve humanitarian and environmental challenges. Some of the projects in this program include quickly and accurately forecasting floods, helping people with different speech abilities to be better understood, or research on COVID-19 with high volume of data available from a large number of sources, to name a few.

There seems to be an understanding that with all the global problems like climate change and pandemics technology can offer some direction on next steps. Some see this as a removed responsibility and yet it could lead to positive changes on different levels with the cumulative impact making a larger difference.

Stanford University launched the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). They partenered with data scientists, engineers and governments and aim to use AI for good to create a better future for all humanity.

More discussion is needed on what is AI4SG – aspirational, what the reality is and what policies and regulations need to be in place in order to achieve it. Ethical aspects are paramount and is a focus of AI research.

Charities have a role to play in advancing the development of responsible AI. This is exactly the purpose for AI Lab for Charities. Let's explore how we can make AI work for social good.