In the first half of the twentieth century, artificial intelligence (AI) revolved around just science fiction movies but it has come a long way since then. From presenting targeted ads based on one’s Google search history to SIRI and self-driving cars, AI has made progress in various socioeconomic issues as well.

Medical Accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence

One of the most remarkable breakthroughs of AI and machine learning is in health care applications. People are using various apps to learn more about themselves and lead a happier and healthier life.

1. Autism & Beyond App: Recent research shows autism can be detected as early as 18 months old using AI, while previously the disease could not be detected before five years of age. The app Autism & Beyond can study a child’s emotions and behavior from their expressions and understand a child much better to provide early effective treatment.
2. EpiWatch: This app has been very helpful for patients with epilepsy as it accurately helps measure the body’s vitals during the onset and duration of a seizure in real-time. EpiWatch then learns from this data and can predict whether such seizures are imminent. Once the accelerometer and heart rate sensors are triggered, the caregiver or a family member is alerted so there is enough time for the patient to receive immediate help.
3. Concussion Tracker: This app helps monitor a head injury for a consecutive six weeks by tracking the heart rate and recording other physiological and cognitive functions. It helps to figure out how fatal the concussion is and its possible consequences.
4. Tumor Detection: Doctors can easily detect a tumor in the brain but pinpointing the size is difficult. Microsoft’s Inner Eye has made this possible and has helped accelerate the time of the treatment.

Advancements in AI for Agriculture

Apart from Medical Science, the accomplishments of artificial intelligence in the fields of agriculture have become widespread. Agriculture is not just old-school farming anymore. High-tech agriculture starts with variable-rate planting equipment that helps identify where a seed will grow best and in what soil conditions it will grow better, thus making farming more efficient than ever before. Furthermore, various AI-based robotic harvesting equipment now exist to help farmers harvest crops.

Global Fishing Watch is also one of the many accomplishments of artificial intelligence as it has helped to stop illegal fishing across the world’s oceans. More than 3 billion people depend on seafood for protein in their diets. And, the global economy loses $83 billion every year to illegal fishing and poor fishery management.

Global Fishing Watch has brought more transparency on the fishing location and behaviors of commercial fishing fleets from every corner of the ocean through processed data sets and fishing activity maps with 95%  accuracy. Indonesia is the first nation to show its results and, already, perpetrators have faced multibillion-dollar fines as a result of the evidence gathered.

AI Combating Global Poverty

Artificial intelligence is a game changer in terms of its ability to pinpoint poverty. Tracking poverty in various places through household survey-based data collection was expensive so AI came to the rescue. In recent years, scientists have tried to identify rich or poor regions by studying nighttime satellite photos on the basis of which places glow brightly.

However, this approach came with a limitation: it could not differentiate between places suffering from near poverty and those with absolute poverty. A research group at Stanford University recently fed the computer both nighttime and high-resolution daytime satellite images of five countries in Africa along with the household survey data.  Features like concrete buildings, well-developed roads, agricultural regions and urban areas helped identify poor/wealthy areas with 81 to 99 percent accuracy.  The United Nations claims this to be one of the biggest accomplishments of artificial intelligence.

Many times, the media focuses on the negative sides of AI but scientists are hopeful that the accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence will do more good than bad. With many more advancements to come, the socioeconomic status of the world is sure to change for the better.

– Shweta Roy
Photo: Google