How Can We Use Artificial Intelligence To Improve Society?

How can we use AI to help society? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Aarthi Srinivasan, Head of AI Solutions Product Management, on Quora:

Talking about far-reaching effects of AI when there is economic inequality, insufficient mental health care, and hatred/war seems like some party conversation in tech bubbletown (which Silicon Valley is sometimes blamed for). However, in the Valley’s defense, if we do not have far-reaching forward-thinking ideas we will never make progress for humanity. Here are a few areas where AI can have an impact.

1. Disease Diagnosis & Medication: Data privacy and regulatory barriers will cause a delay in disrupting this segment.
   1. If the patient is able to access their own data, they should be able to use AI for diagnosis of their X-rays or MRI scans as a second opinion.
   2. A soldier in war zones can get the AR/VR experience with instructions to help treat themselves and remove a bullet.
   3. DNA based personalized medicine to extend the life of humans.
   4. Robots to remind you to take medicine pills (e.g. Pillo)
   5. Mental Health Support: Match trained counselors to people who are considering self-harm or suicide e.g.Crisis Text Line where algorithms can highlight the folks who are at risk based on the content of their text. There are also emotional health apps like Moodpath, Talklife, Youper, Calm harm etc. to get you away from the hot state.
   6. Mobility: We all know someone in our live’s who has been hurt or killed by a human-error accident. While the Autonomous vehicles have not been accident-free today, it has the potential to increase safety on the streets and allow homebound seniors or disabled citizens to ride comfortably. On average with self-driving cars, we are experiencing one fatality for approximately 2 Million miles which is safer than the traditional driving numbers of 1 fatality for approximately 500,000 miles.
   7. Education: A society moves forward when literacy grows and sheds new perspectives (Netflix Emmy award recommendation - Daughters of Destiny that shows how education is an equalizer.)
      1. Personalized education track to get students to their destination with focus.
      2. Virtual chatbot mentors who can guide you to complete the problems.
   8. Refugee crisis: Computer vision solutions to determine the real truth with drones.
   I am sure there are many more areas where AI can help like in microfinance and I encourage more entrepreneurs to think about AI applications for social good.
   With regards, to the second part of learning about AI, I would recommend Coursera courses and lectures from schools such as MIT or Stanford.
   This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter and Facebook. More questions:
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