Why AI for Good should be Dead?

If the core of a business is for good, then there is no need for ai4good or tech4good. AI4Good (or tech4Good) needs to be looked at holistically with the rest of the business and not on the side as a 'feel good factor' for PR.

Over the last few years, being in and following many AI4Good conferences, events, and initiatives, I am convinced that 95% of AI4Good is nothing but PR. Corporations see the term AI4Good to improve their public image while the core of the business focuses on maximizing profits for their shareholders. I recently gave a talk on Datafest, Tbilisi, on the topic 'Why AI for Good should be dead?' and I showed the following image

The above image depicts where AI4Good stands in comparison to what is being done in AI. AI4Good can be termed as

a small portion tucked away in the corner to create a 'feel good factor' thinking we are doing good for the world, while 95% of the AI work is not driven by what is good for the world but how to maximize shareholder profits.

Here lies the biggest problem with all that is happening in AI4Good.

Recently, as part of the Omdena impACT leadership program, I had the opportunity to talk with HE Tshering Tobgay, Former PM of Bhutan. Worldwide, Bhutan is best known for the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH). This philosophy guides the government and the whole society while pursuing the happiness and sustainable development of the country. For the Bhutanese government, Gross National Happiness (GNH) is more important than Gross National Product (GDP).?

On asked his opinion about AI, HE has the following to say:

We really need to take AI holistically together with the rest of the business, which is driven by maximizing value and happiness for the community and the world.

During my recent visit to FII, Riyadh, I stressed during a panel discussion that 'We have a good opportunity to use AI to make a more just society, with equal opportunities for all, without the biases of humans, without preferring one over another. The more bias we build in, the more we divide society; in contrast, we can use AI to be more ethical and create more opportunities.?[read the full article in the arab news].

How to build AI, for the good of the world?

We have come up with the 3C's principle of AI - collaboration, compassion, and consciousness. Our argument is that everything?starts with us humans. We have to?collaborate?with?compassion?and?consciousness.?We have to leverage?crowd wisdom?and build AI through the power of?diverse teams.

The best bet we have to tackle ‘bad’ AI is we, the people. We have to become more aware of what can happen and build the solutions we want to use. Considering the tremendous impact that most of today’s AI solutions have on people and society, it would be anyway detrimental to build solutions in isolation from the people and social circumstances that make them necessary in the first place.?

Collaboration?among varied talents enables us to bridge gaps in understanding between different mindsets, share knowledge, and unite people and values. It, therefore, helps to create?compassion?and harnesses crowd wisdom, diversity, and inclusion to serve the long-term interests of those communities. However, it is important to not just have token diversity but true diversity of opinions.

The other key element is?consciousness. As so much division exists in this world, we need to understand that deep down, we all are one, and all the groups that we associate with (nation, religion, sexual orientation, gender, the color of skin, etc.) are just an illusion of our mind. We have the same fears, same aspirations, and similar dreams, and all our fate is the same, and our consciousness is collective. The actors must be conscious of themselves and their values. As developers of AI technology, we need to grow and develop our collective consciousness.

If we want to survive and face future challenges of the world and from bad actors (and AI), we have to collaborate together with compassion and consciousness. AI built by the three C’s (Collaboration, Compassion, and Consciousness) will help us to remove endemic sociological and historical bias and other inequalities that exist in society.?AI does not challenge the status quo unless the process is purposely designed to do so.?

The Choice is ours.?

Do we want to technologies like AI built by a select few, Or we collaboratively, compassionately and, consciously build AI solutions?