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AI for Humanity: The Global Challenges

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Reflections on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 12600))

Abstract

This chapter summarizes four global challenges for AI: health, education, the environment, and science. In each area, AI has enormous potential to enhance human well-being, yet very substantial obstacles remain in both basic research and global deployment. Beyond these four areas, we ask whether reliance on AI to solve our problems is a viable strategy for humanity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is no consensus on exactly to define this phrase, but we find it useful, nonetheless, as a hypothetical construct in discussing possible future developments. For the sake of argument, assume that such an entity could successfully carry out essentially any task that it would be reasonable to ask a human or collection of humans “skilled in the art” to carry out. It is likely, of course, that such machines would vastly exceed human capabilities in terms of scale and speed.

  2. 2.

    On the specifics of AI for social sciences and humanities, see Chap. 12.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada

    Jocelyn Maclure

  2. University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Stuart Russell

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  1. Jocelyn Maclure
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  2. Stuart Russell
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Correspondence to Stuart Russell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inria, Le Chesnay, France

    Bertrand Braunschweig

  2. LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France

    Malik Ghallab

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Maclure, J., Russell, S. (2021). AI for Humanity: The Global Challenges. In: Braunschweig, B., Ghallab, M. (eds) Reflections on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12600. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69128-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69128-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69127-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-69128-8

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