As a technology, AI helps everyone – doctors, engineers and farmers – to make a positive impact on society.
Bryan Olson, Global Marketing Director at Intel, suffered prostate cancer and survived. The cancer went into remission after he used targeted molecular testing to create a customized treatment plan.
Scientists and oncologists used high-performance computing systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to compare Olson’s molecular test results with a vast database of previous cases. Once a match was found, the physician used this research to customize a treatment plan.
“In the world of healthcare, artificial intelligence is still in its infancy,” reported Wired Magazine. “But the idea is spreading.”
Artificial intelligence is embedded in and powers many gadgets, like smartphones, smart thermostats, and voice-activated virtual assistants that bring modern conveniences to daily life. Increasingly, AI is also being used to tackle critical social challenges.
AI is a branch of computer science where machines can sense, learn, reason, act and adapt to the real world, amplifying human capabilities and automating tedious or dangerous tasks. No one doubts about the potential AI has to start a real social revolution.
FarmLogs makes sowing fields look easy. The company develops a farming management app currently used by one out of three farmers in America. FarmLogs processes data and technology to help farmers monitor fields, track the weather and get insights into soil using historical satellite imagery to calculate irregular plant growth.
“Farming has really changed forever. The next big wave of transformation in this industry will come from data science, in applying the new information that we have in the world into agriculture and helping farmers use that to get the most out of every acre they farm.” said Jess Vollmar, a Michigan farmer and co-founder of FarmLogs.
Over the past three decades, the attention and energy flowing into AI has steadily increased. Many researchers agree that AI can be intelligent without being sensitive, which reaches the heart of the fear of new technology: the difference between intelligence and autonomy.
During the SXSW 2017 Interactive Festival, Diane Bryant, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Intel Data Center Group, said that AI helps manage scarce resources and has the potential to improve inclusion and human rights worldwide.
“AI will achieve a social transformation alongside the industrial, digital and computer revolutions,” Bryant told the SXSW audience.
And there is a lot of work to be done: cancer impacted 1.6 million people in the US in 2015. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that the earth’s population will balloon to 9.7 billion people by 2050. AI could change the way we approach all these challenges.
