Understanding AI for Social Good
Using AI for social good to address social, economic, and environmental issues involves everything from machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision to robotics. In essence, the idea is to take the great potential of artificial intelligence and use it to make people’s lives better, conserve the environment, and create societies that are more just. The World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted a study that demonstrated how artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics were critical in monitoring and forecasting the development of COVID-19, which improved the pandemic response.
AI Applications Across Diverse Sectors to Tackle Global Challenges
Poverty reduction, food insecurity, and sustainable agricultural practices can be enhanced by AI derived from data analytics and management, resource usage, and yield predictions.
Healthcare
- Predictive Analytics for Disease Outbreaks: Mobile applications have been deployed by the Government of India, including Arogya Setu, to implement AI and data analytics to identify COVID-19 cases and alert the user to areas with high instances of infections.
- AI in Diagnostics and Treatment: The technology being employed in Niramai is thermal imaging and machine learning algorithms which help in the diagnosis of cancerous tissues without the use of external radiation.
- Telemedicine and AI Diagnostics: Some e-health applications such as Practo and 1mg use Artificial Intelligence for the diagnosis of diseases and healthcare in remote areas of India. These AI tools help patients to be examined remotely, and plan the proper treatment on time – all of this increases access and the impact of interventions.
- Mental Health Support: Currently, there are AI talk therapy applications such as Wysa, helping millions of Indians with their mental health. Wysa has applied NLP to host warm conversations and provides affordable and easily accessible CBT with licensed therapists.
Education
According to a McKinsey report, using AI in the classroom can enhance learning results by giving students individualised learning experiences and pointing out areas in which they require more assistance.
- Personalized Learning: Applications such as BYJU’s and Vedantu are using AI to study and adapt the learner's behaviours. It is an approach to delivering customised education to children where learning material is prepared according to the individual child’s needs.
- Enhancing Accessibility: AI is being employed to make education easily available. Some of the AI accessibility projects by Microsoft include; Seeing AI, an AI app for visually impaired students, where that speaks about their environment and reads text to them.
Environmental Conservation
- Monitoring and Protecting Wildlife: Programmes like Wildbook in India leverage artificial intelligence for animal conservation by tracking endangered species such as tigers and elephants, through computer vision and machine learning algorithms.
- Climate Change Mitigation: Machine learning is used to detect climate change through early identification of hazardous weather conditions and management of renewable energy. It is also employed at Google to accurately predict wind patterns for enhancement in wind energy projects.
- Forest Monitoring: AI technologies are actively used in the protection of forests and their observation in the territory of India. Such applications include Global Forest Watch, which monitors and recognizes instances of illicit logging and forest fires in real time via satellite imagery and AI algorithms.
- Waste Management: Currently, AI-integrated waste management solutions for urban areas such as Bangalore are preventing waste management problems. Such startups as TrashCon apply AI for sorting wastes and repurposing waste products diminishing the role of landfills.
Agriculture
The Indian government’s AI-based National Agriculture Market (eNAM) platform connects farmers and buyers, providing real-time price information, and eliminating middlemen.
- Precision Farming: AI has been impacting agriculture in India with precision farming. For instance, CropIn uses artificial intelligence and structured data analysis to help farmers identify the status of crops, ground, and climate. This supports farmers in the decision-making processes, on the use of resources and also on how best to maximise the production of crops grown.
- Supply Chain Optimization: AI is also playing a role in streamlining the agricultural supply chain. Ninjakart uses artificial intelligence to assess the farmers and directly connect them to retailers to remove the middlemen who offer low prices for the farmers’ produce. The AI predicts demand and supply rates as well as helps farmers to optimise their crops better.
Financial Inclusion
- Credit Scoring for the Unbanked: AI is proving itself beneficial for the Indian economy, especially in the context of financial literacy. This way, fintech companies such as CreditVidya make use of AI to analyse the ‘thin file’ and ‘no file’ populations in society and offer them credit scores.
- Fraud Detection: AI is also helping to improve the security of financial transactions as well. Today, AI is implemented in banks and other financial institutions to recognise fraudulent processes in real time, thus, safeguarding customers and ensuring minimum financial losses.
Disaster Management
- Predicting Natural Disasters: AI technologies are significant in the prediction of natural events like floods and earthquakes. For example, IBM’s Deep Thunder is an AI model that offers a real-time prediction of floods at high resolution so that the authorities can contain damage.
- Disaster Response: Advanced robotic AI-driven robotic devices are useful for disaster mitigation. These remarkable machines can get to confined spaces, evaluate the extent of the wreckage, and bring in logistics, making the rescue efforts a lot more effective.
NGOs Implementing Artificial Intelligence Solutions
Wadhwani AI
Wadhwani AI is a newly formed nonprofit organisation that possesses a clear goal of using AI to address key issues in Indian society. They have embraced sectors such as; health, food production, and clothes production. They have developed an application called the Cotton Pest Management Solution, which involves the use of artificial intelligence in formulating intelligent predictions on pest outbreaks and recommending tips to the farmers, that would enhance crop production of cotton and reduce the use of fertilizers such as pesticides.
Pratham Education Foundation
Pratham is an NGO that is one of the largest NGOs in India and is concerned with the education sector. They have incorporated artificial intelligence into the way they teach and enhance the learning of their students. The use of AI researchers by Pratham has seen a breakthrough in the use of innovations that meet the students’ ACs in their quest to deliver education to rural areas.
SEEDS India
SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) is an NGO that majorly focuses on fields of the disaster management and sustainable development. They have used advanced technologies and AI specifically in the case of natural disasters to predict future events and to plan the appropriate measures to be taken. According to the machine learning models that SEEDS employs, the summaries of the weather patterns help identify the regions that are likely to be affected by the floods, the affected areas, and how best resources can be deployed in facilitating evacuation.
Tech Companies Offering AI Solutions for Public Good
Google
Google is in the right place right now when it comes to makiṣng use of artificial intelligence for social purposes.
- Project Loon: This project employs the use of AI for launching HTML balloons to provide internet connectivity in the targeted regions.
- Flood Forecasting: This is a project developed by Google where artificial intelligence-based flood forecasting is available for the sharing of timely alerts for specific areas in India to reduce the impacts of floods.
Microsoft
Accessibility is one of the key areas that relate to the utilisation of AI adopted by Microsoft in the AI for Good project, environmental conservation, and humanitarian causes. undefined
- AI for Earth: This program helps organizations with artificial intelligence interventions for tackling environmental problems. Thus, AI for Earth has supported the experimentations in India in which machine learning is used to analyze air quality and future crop yields.
- AI for Humanitarian Action: One of the companies that work together with various NGOs is Microsoft which aims at applying AI in disaster management and relief work that enhances the effectiveness of providing aid and resources.
IBM
IBM is also among the biggest tech companies that engaged in AI for social causes. Their initiatives include:
- Watson for Oncology: Thus, this kind of AI-driven platform supports doctors in diagnosing and treating cancer-based on medical evidence.
- AI for Disaster Response: The Deep Thunder technology developed by IBM helps predict disaster and weather patterns and assist authorities in disaster response and management.
Adobe
The digital services that Adobe has developed with AI inputs are proving highly useful for students and creative professionals. Their initiatives include:
- Adobe Sensei: It is used to execute and support several creative tools where the users can generate content more quickly and qualitatively.
- AI for Education: Adobe collaborates with educational institutions to supply innovative AI solutions that assist students in achieving their academic goals.
Wrapping Up
Overall, AI for Good is a beneficial concept, which can facilitate solving global issues and create a positive social impact. In India, the application of AI has been seen on the horizon in several verticals including healthcare, education, agriculture and environmental protection. When properly implemented and promoted through stakeholder engagement, AI can be used as a tool for creating a brighter future. Reflecting upon the blog, it is important to weigh the risks and benefits of using AI technology and its contributions to creating a world where technology is a force for good.
