What benefits can AI deliver?
AI technologies can deliver a raft of benefits, many of which are examined in the survey findings. The potential benefits are generally around efficiency, accuracy, speed or accessibility, with AI technologies often being able to surpass the abilities of humans to perform some specific tasks and identify patterns within data.
In the survey, some of the uses of AI that people think can be beneficial range from robotic vacuum cleaners and facial recognition for unlocking mobile phones and processing at border control, to advancing knowledge in climate change research using simulations, and calculating the risk of a person developing cancer.
Virtual assistant technologies such as smart speakers like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri streamline people’s lives by responding to voice commands to do things such as turn appliances in the home on and off, answer questions about a range of topics, set reminders, or play music. Virtual assistants can also assess information about a person’s health, by responding to and triaging online healthcare queries, including about appointments or symptoms.
AI-powered robotics such as robotic vacuum cleaners and driverless cars can interact with the physical world automatically, sometimes without the need for a human operator. These technologies use large amounts of data generated by machines, humans and sensors in the physical world to learn to carry out tasks that would previously have been carried out by humans.
AI-driven simulation technologies can help researchers study and learn about places and events that would otherwise be impossible or difficult to directly experience. They are able to create realistic simulations about how things were in the past, or how they might be in the future, for example in analysing Arctic sea ice loss, or the risks of climate change to human and national security. These technologies can help with climate change research by allowing scientists to simulate climate-related events at different times and in different parts of the world under a range of conditions.
But for these to be truly beneficial to people and society, the opportunities and benefits generated by data and AI should be justly and equitably distributed and experienced. More research is needed, for example, to understand the extent to which some of these AI uses improve accuracy or accessibility. Through effective research, policy and practice, the transformative power of data and AI can be used in ways that maximise social wellbeing, alongside improving efficiencies.