Developing AI for a better and kinder world

Photo: Andy Kelly/Unsplash

In the Generative AI: Steam Engine of the Fourth Industrial Revolution session on Day 2 of Davos 2024, speakers broadly agreed that AI was more than hype and it'd bring about significant change and that if individuals, businesses and the economy were to take advantage, re-skilling was essential.

 

Daphne Koller, an Israeli-American computer scientist, predicted that AI would help us solve really hard problems that humans can't.

 

Let's hope it does. But what are some of the challenges that we struggle to overcome?

 

Not counting the predictable ones like global poverty and inequality, climate change, industry and economy, the digital ecosystem, international conflicts and human rights, those would include —

 

Building positive and meaningful relationships—being happy and making others happy

 

Sustaining mental health and well-being for all

 

Finding a cure for cancers and other terminal illnesses

 

Practising universal empathy and compassion, as individuals and as a society

 

Ensuring everyone gets a fair deal in the workplace

 

Managing finances; dealing with unexpected expenses and debt

 

Raising children in a clean and harmonious environment

 

Sticking to a self-care regimen—positive thinking, exercise, sleep and relaxation, hobbies

 

Now if AI can help address these and other everyday concerns, then it will have the potential to improve the quality of life perhaps not seen since electricity lit up our homes, penicillin was discovered, and computers and the internet became household assets.

 

Ultimately, the genuine impact of AI will be felt only when it benefits humanity on a big scale.

 

© PocketfulofHappiness