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AI's Public Good: Beyond Fear, Toward Solutions
31 May
Summary
- AI can solve complex problems, aiding math and medicine.
- Public access to AI compute power is crucial for innovation.
- Government funding can steer AI industry toward public needs.
The current policy debate surrounding Artificial Intelligence primarily addresses its potential harms, such as job displacement, surveillance, and the concentration of wealth. However, a significant aspect that remains largely absent from this conversation is how AI can actively benefit the public.
While AI's public perception is currently negative, its usage is expanding. The author argues that AI's benefits are not automatic and require concerted effort to identify and solve public problems. This involves developing necessary data, financing, and computational resources.
Remarkable AI achievements include disproving a long-standing mathematical conjecture, developing an AI-generated drug for pulmonary fibrosis, detecting pancreatic cancers years in advance, and generating faster, more accurate weather predictions. These advancements highlight AI's capacity when directed towards specific challenges.
Realizing AI's public benefits necessitates a strategic approach. This includes establishing a public option for AI, ensuring affordable access to computing power for universities and public agencies, and creating incentives for the private sector to address public issues. Government-backed initiatives could guarantee markets for AI-driven solutions.
AI can tackle problems in areas like rare diseases, drug repurposing, and materials science. Pilot projects, though currently overshadowed by corporate interests, demonstrate AI's utility in fields like battery technology. Public funding is essential to redirect industry focus towards societal challenges.
Furthermore, AI can transform citizen-government interactions by simplifying navigation of public services, akin to a personal accountant or a digital concierge for government assistance. This requires improving and cleaning government data sets, and potentially funding new data creation.
Ultimately, fostering an AI that serves the public good requires defining these public goods and creating the necessary conditions for AI to deliver them, shifting the focus from what we fear AI will do to what we hope it will achieve for us.
