AI is a Human Endeavor

As the world becomes awash in data, artificial intelligence (AI) is the tool we all must increasingly use to keep up.

Yet, for many, AI is still falsely synonymous with a robot revolution. Pictures of a cold, dystopian AI-powered future fill the mind’s eye. But AI is a fundamentally human endeavor, which means AI is also a force for good.

My belief in the promise of AI, and my commitment to help unlock its value in a sustainable and ethical way, is why I’ve joined milk+honey as chief client officer.

So, what is AI?

AI is the concept that machines can act in ways that we, humans, value and that seem intelligent to us.

We broadly understand intelligence as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. For people, it can come naturally or be acquired through learning. For machine-based systems, it is critical to delineate “narrow AI” and “general AI”.

General AI refers to a future state where machines can successfully perform intellectual tasks just like humans. To achieve this, among other things, machines will have to develop common sense and self-awareness, perhaps even a sense of humor. These skills are likely decades away from becoming a reality.

Narrow AI refers to the ability of machine-based systems, at this moment, to address specific problems by making associations and learning from experience in ways that we value. In a business context, these systems can provide tools that assist us, work alongside us, or even manage responsibilities we choose to delegate. Modern workplaces are increasingly made up of humans and machines working together. (And, the irony is, when it works well we usually stop calling it AI. Did you realize the reason you’re getting less spam is you have an AI assistant working alongside you?)

Within narrow AI, machine learning is a process that uses computers to create models that can look at vast quantities of data to determine patterns, make assumptions, recognize associations, and produce outputs. The big data that fuels these models can be in the form of text, pictures or images, audio files, quantities, or any number of non-traditional machine input formats. The more data there is, and the more specific the instructions are, the more reliable or accurate the output is. As our need for AI increases, so does its power to help us.

What should we expect of AI, and ourselves?

The promise of these powerful tools must play a key role in advancing sustainable development, with private sector investment and successful business use cases being a critical part of that effort.

This vision is not based on hype or some blind belief that this (or any other) technology will be a panacea. It’s an informed understanding that people hold the power to apply key capabilities within the domain of AI to help address some of the biggest challenges we face (e.g., disease outbreaks, access to quality education, food scarcity and agriculture, inequality and discrimination).

AI is a fundamentally human endeavor and we the people can use it to benefit humanity and the planet that is our home. This opportunity is a clarion call across sectors, industries, demographics, and cultures.

Put AI to work for humanity and join the conversation at the O’Reilly AI Conference, September 5-7, in San Francisco. Be sure to catch Jake Porway, executive director of DataKind, speak about AI as a force for good. milk+honey’s own powerhouse CEO, Beth Partridge, will also be leading an interactive session to introduce a breakthrough approach to enterprise AI for business leaders. Best price ends June 8.