10 Wonderful Examples Of Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Good

Posted on

by Bernard Marr

One of the many benefits of using artificial intelligence (AI) is to help us view societal problems from a different perspective. While there’s been much hubbub about how AI might be misused, we must not overlook the many ways AI can be used for good. Our global issues are complex, and AI provides us with a valuable tool to augment human efforts to come up with solutions to vexing problems. Here are 10 of the best ways artificial intelligence is used for good.

Cancer Screening

Artificial intelligence, powered by deep-learning algorithms, is already in use in healthcare. Specifically, AI’s imaging capabilities are promising for cancer identification and screening, including breast cancer. Artificial intelligence is also used to predict the development of diseases across a healthcare network. A group at Mount Sinai used deep learning-based AI algorithms to predict the development of diseases with 94% accuracy, including cancers of liver, rectum, and prostate. Thanks to published cancer research, clinical trials, and drug development, there’s a plethora of data that AI can help to review and then guide healthcare decision-making.

Save the Bees

Did you know The World Bee Project is using artificial intelligence to save the bees? The global bee population is in decline, and that’s bad news for our planet and our food supply. In a partnership with Oracle, The World Bee Project hopes to learn how to help bees survive and thrive by gathering data through internet-of-things sensors, microphones, and cameras on hives. The data is then uploaded to the cloud and analyzed by artificial intelligence to identify patterns or trends that could direct early interventions to help bees survive. Ultimately, artificial intelligence makes it easier to share real-time information on a global scale and take action to save the bees.

Tools for People with Disabilities

Another way artificial intelligence is used for good is to help people with disabilities overcome them. Huawei used AI and augmented reality to create StorySign, a free mobile app that helps deaf children learn to read by translating the text into sign language. The company also created Track.Ai, an easy-to-use, affordable device that can identify visual disorders in children so treatment can begin before the disorders cause blindness. Facing Emotions, another AI app created by Huawei, translates emotion into short and simple sounds. The app assesses the emotion it sees on another’s face to help blind people “see” the emotion of the person they are talking with. The app uses the rear camera on the phone to evaluate the nose, mouth, eyebrows and eyes, and artificial intelligence to analyze the expression on these facial features and what emotion they convey—contempt, anger, fear, disgust, sadness, happiness and surprise.

Climate Change

We can make tremendous progress in solving one of the world’s biggest issues with the support of artificial intelligence. Climate change is a gargantuan problem, but several thought leaders in AI and machine learning believe technology might be able to tackle it. Machine learning can improve climate informatics—machine learning algorithms power approximately 30 climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Artificial intelligence can also help educate and predict the impacts of climate change on different regions. Researchers from the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) use GANs (generative adversarial networks) to simulate the damage of severe storms and rising sea levels.

Wildlife Conservation

Another way AI is put to work for the planet is in conservation efforts and allows underfunded conservationists an opportunity to analyze data inexpensively. A team from the University of Hawaii’s Kauai Endangered Seabird Recovery Project used AI to analyze 600 hours of audio to detect the number of collisions between birds and power lines. In another effort to halt the decline of endangered species by using AI, the University of Southern California Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society uses an unmanned aerial vehicle to spot poachers and locate animals. The data collected by the drone is sent back to be analyzed by machine learning tools that use game theory to help predict poacher and animal activity. AI is also used by Wild Me and Microsoft to automatically recognize, log, and track endangered animals like whale sharks by analyzing photos people upload to the internet.

Combat World Hunger

One of the most viable tools in the fight to end the world hunger crisis is artificial intelligence. It can analyze millions of data points to help determine the perfect crop, develop seeds, maximize current output, and control herbicide application precisely. Many applications are in use already, but one we’ll highlight here is the Nutrition Early Warning System (NEWS) that uses machine learning and big data to identify regions that are at increased risk of food shortages due to crop failure, rising food prices and drought.

Reduce Inequality and Poverty

Although one of the criticisms with AI algorithms is the human bias that can be introduced via skewed algorithms or training data sets, AI can actually help reduce inequalities. The Center for Data Science and Public Policy of the University of Chicago’s project Aequitas and IBM’s AI Fairness 360 are open source toolkits that can track and correct bias. Smart text editor Textio, that makes job descriptions more inclusive, helped one publisher grow its percentage of women recruits to 57 percent, from just 10% previously. Imperial College of London is training AI to Identify inequality based on street images of living conditions in cities, with the aim to ultimately use this information to improve the situations. Similarly, AI analyzes satellite imagery in a Stanford University project to predict regions of poverty, which can then influence economic aid. Another way AI/machine learning is working to end poverty is through IBM’s Science for Social Good directive Simpler Voice to overcome illiteracy.

Spot “Fake News”

It’s true: AI is the engine that pushes “fake news” out to the masses, but Google, Microsoft, and grassroots effort Fake News Challenge are using AI (machine learning and natural language processing) to assess the truth of articles automatically. Due to the trillions of posts, Facebook must monitor and the impossibility of manually doing it, the company also uses artificial intelligence to find words and patterns that could indicate fake news. Other tools that rely on AI to analyze content include Spike, Snopes, Hoaxy, and more.

Assess Medical Images

In general, artificial intelligence is leveraged in many ways to improve healthcare systems. German-based Siemens Healthineers is a leading medical technology company that integrates AI into many of its innovative technologies. One of these technologies is the AI-Rad Companion.4, a radiologist assistant that supports routine reading and measurement tasks on medical imaging. AI augments the review of medical imaging to help alleviate some of the workloads for over-taxed radiologists. Another innovation is the AI-Pathway Companion5. This tool integrates insights from pathology, imaging, lab and genetics for each patient to provide status and suggest the next steps based on the data.

Prioritize Upgrades

At the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS), AI is deployed to figure out how to maintain Los Angeles’ water supply in the event of an earthquake. Since the city’s utility infrastructure is aging, the project aims to identify strategic areas for improvement in the network of pipes, so that critical infrastructure (those that serve hospitals, evacuation centers, fire and police centers) is prioritized for upgrades to earthquake-resistant pipes. This is a problem AI is adept at solving by simulating many different scenarios to find the best solution.

Source: Forbes

Shoring Up Executive Careers in a Pandemic

Posted on

by Lee Seok Hwai

The best time to plan for contingencies was yesterday. The next best time is now.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic derailed the global economy and decimated jobs by the millions, executives everywhere were grappling with technological disruptions as well as issues triggered by climate, social and political upheaval. Then COVID-19 happened. Whether you are in danger of redundancy or simply reflecting on what your career might look like in the new normal, this is a good time to evaluate how you could improve your job outlook.

The first step is to take stock of where you stand in the three stages of the executive career, said José Luis Álvarez, INSEAD Senior Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour. They are: the establishment stage, the maintenance stage and the withdrawal stage. Integral to these are the network, especially mentors and sponsors, and the plans that you lay out for each of the stages, ideally well in advance.

“The important thing is that you have a plan, you have a strategy. You don’t wait, you have some idea ready for implementation,” Álvarez said at a recent webinar, “Executive careers in the face of change”, part of the INSEAD series on Navigating the Turbulence of COVID-19.

“Don’t wait for the future to tell you what to do. It is better to make mistakes in a strategy than having no strategy at all.” Continue reading →

The Digitization Imperative

Posted on
  By Ram Charan

The Covid-19 crisis isn’t behind us yet, but companies have to start putting the economic pieces together for their business to not just survive but also build a new future. At this point, there are three priorities most companies should act on with great haste: employee safety, cash management week by week and a digital connection with customers, suppliers and ecosystem partners. Missing any of the three could seriously jeopardize the continuity of the business.

Companies that are not already on their way to being digital have to realize the urgency. It’s not just digital giants like Amazon that threaten their future. It’s also legacy companies that are becoming digital. In the pandemic, they’ve been able to adapt more quickly. And, under normal circumstances, they can gain share very fast.

Maybe you’ve come to terms with the fact that you must become a digital company. But you’re convinced that this is not the time to act. You have to realize that waiting for stability is a luxury you can’t afford. Really, there is no need to wait.

Talking to a number of CEOs, I have learned that there are myths about what digitization costs, how much cash it will use, and how long it will take. Business leaders don’t think they can show a clear return on their investment. Besides, they’re convinced that people in the organization will resist it.

Well, that’s no longer the case. You can now pick the most urgent, most critical tasks—the ones that will help you get cash, increase revenues or connect with customers, suppliers and ecosystem partners—and achieve them in bite-size portions. You can see benefits in weeks or months, not years.

 

Here are some examples:

• Dynamic pricing. It is a necessity when uncertainty is here to stay.

• Collection of receivables. The collections process is critical to liquidity.

• A continuous connection with customers. You will need this to help you pick up how their behavior is changing, how demand is shifting and what the voice of the customer is. It will help with forecasting, with impacts on inventory and cash flow.

• A single source of data. Data-based decision-making, whether or not it’s automated, is now an imperative. But it is difficult to use data for decision-making if it is spread across many silos; it is highly inconsistent, and managers don’t trust it.

A number of small vendors now exist that can do projects like these for you in less than 90 days for less than $400,000.

Make your own list and take one or two tasks at a time. Then, reach out to small vendors (UST Global and Altimetrik are two I’m familiar with). Define your tasks clearly and precisely, just as you’ve done with outsourcing, facilities construction or other turnkey projects.

You might not realize that digital giants like Amazon all began using digital technology for one task at a time. They used small vendors—and still do—because they are fast, they cost less, and they take the project to completion. They become partners in operationalizing it. You focus on what needs to be digitized and why, and how it will create revenues, cash, margins, customer satisfaction or speed. The vendors focus on giving you the relevant digital platform or digital apps.

When it comes to organizational resistance, that is unlikely to exist anymore. If someone does resist, you have to deal with it right away.

One more thing: don’t be put off by terminology and tools with which you’re not familiar, like algorithms and big data. Algorithms—the mathematical rules by which data is processed—have been around for hundreds of years. Roughly two dozen of them are used for common tasks and are readily available.

So, take the mystery out and take on small turnkey tasks that can build your business and ensure its continuity.

Source: Chief Executive

Continue reading →

Seven Ways Leaders Can Prepare for Post-Pandemic Times

Posted on

by Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

Avoid knee-jerk reactions when creating a plan for the future.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” This opening line from Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities captures the contradictory times we live in. It also describes how organisations may react to the coronavirus pandemic in very different ways.

Take fictional Company A. When the pandemic occurred, fear permeated its top echelons. For years, its leadership had bought back shares to improve its financial metrics and warrant fat bonuses for executives. This reduced its financial leeway, prompting the CEO and the CFO to go on a major cost-cutting spree, including the cancellation of all training and development activities. They also used the turbulent economic environment as an excuse to lay off many employees they didn’t like, without any explanation. In light of these actions, a doomsday atmosphere prevailed.

At fictional Company B, senior executives reacted very differently. Granted, with the lessons learned from the last recession, they had created strong financial reserves, which enabled them not to lay off anyone. Instead, they eliminated overtime hours, put in place sabbatical programmes and made use of government support schemes. They instituted a salary freeze and downsized their own remuneration. Knowing that recessions offered exceptional opportunities to pick up high-quality talent, they kept their eyes open. They would not fall into the trap of having a shortage of people with key skills. Although it would have been easy to cut training, top management decided to keep key elements of it to better prepare its workforce for the future. Continue reading →

6 tips for remote hiring success

Posted on

By Sarah K. White

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only shaken up business as usual, sending large portions of the workforce to work from home, it’s also pushed companies to hire from home. Recruiters and hiring managers are now faced with the task of vetting candidates remotely, a challenging prospect for many organizations and roles, especially for technical interviews or for establishing a culture fit. While there are obstacles to this “new normal,” some companies have found positives in the new hiring process.

If your company is one of the many that will be hiring virtually, even temporarily, moving forward, here are six tips to help smooth the transition and ensure a strong candidate fit.

Bring structure to the process

Jocelyn Lai, director of talent acquisition at Duolingo, says her team had just 24 hours to completely revolutionize the company’s hiring process after the COVID-19 lock downs went into effect. Part of that included building out a structured process for recruiters and candidates to follow while the company continued to ramp up hiring.

Lai recommends establishing a quick guide for instructing candidates on how to run through their video and sound equipment ahead of time in case there are any compatibility issues and to give them a general sense of what to expect. The same goes for your recruiters, she says. Make sure everyone is using the same video conferencing software, that they have all the resources for quality video calls and that they are trained on any software or services you may use to conduct any technical interviews.

Bringing structure to the process not only helps your recruiters be effective, but it also alleviates potential added stress on candidates. Candidates may feel more anxious or stressed about a virtual interview, especially if they are new to the process. By “over communicating” with candidates, you can help them feel at ease, which will help avoid any potential performance issues during the interview, Lai says.

Re imagine the technical interview

Technical interviews can pose a unique challenge during the virtual hiring process. Engineers who are used to using physical white boards for technical interviews may have to embrace Google Docs or a third-party service such as HackerRank or CodeSignal. It’s important to take into account any potential limitations of your setup — and to consider giving candidates a chance for a do-over if they’re new to virtual technical interviews. Let candidates know in advance how you plan to conduct technical interviews — again, communication is key in helping ease anxiety and to get the best out of your candidate.

Embrace a new pace

While the current situation isn’t ideal, plenty of companies are finding positives in this new employment landscape. Orkideh Shahidi, vice president of people operations at SADA Systems, says her team had already conducted some virtual interviews prior to the lock downs, but the company’s recruitment process has now moved entirely online due to Covid-19.

One benefit Shahidi has noticed is that, with recruiters and candidates working from home, recruiters are no longer vying for meeting rooms or conference lines, and candidates also have more availability. More over, SADA hiring managers no longer have to wait weeks to schedule time to fly a candidate in for an in-person interview if they’re in another state or country.

“Candidates don’t need to rush to their cars to take a call and we don’t have to wait for them to take a day off to fly over here. It makes the interview process and the hiring process a lot faster,” says Shahidi.

Adjust your outlook on perks

Perks and benefits are big draws for tech candidates. Tech giants like Facebook, Microsoft and Google are well known for in-office perks such as unique working spaces, healthy snacks, free meals, on-site gyms and roof decks.

With new hires likely working from home for the foreseeable future, however, these perks are off the table, Lai says. If your organization leans on these perks to sway talent, you’ll need to find other ways to get candidates engaged in your corporate culture.

“Once you remove the perks, there is nothing to stand on, so it’s all about authenticity now. Now there’s another bar that companies have to hit in terms of candidate experience and it’s that authenticity piece because you have nothing to hide behind,” says Lai.

Source: CIO Magazine