AI on a social mission

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to be human rights' best advocate and its worst enemy. Either it can help us reach the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or, to quote internationally renowned AI scientist Yoshua Bengio, it can "increase discrepancies between the rich and the poor and be a threat to democracy." Fears of job loss and psychological manipulation are real and require a united front. To help us better understand and shape the social impacts of AI for the greater good, the inaugural conference AI on a Social Mission was held last month in Montreal. "AI is both a hope and a danger," warned Bengio, who was the keynote speaker at the conference.