AI is targeting some of the world's biggest problems: homelessness, terrorism, and extinction

Making AI models at the University of Southern California (USC) Center for AI in Society does not involve a clean, sorted dataset. Sometimes it means interviewing homeless youth in Los Angeles to map human social networks. Sometimes it involves going to Uganda for better conservation of endangered species. "With AI, we are able to reach 70 percent of the youth population in the pilot, compared to about 25 percent in the standard techniques. So AI algorithms are able to reach far more youth in terms of spreading HIV information compared to traditional methods," said Milind Tambe, a professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and cofounder of the Center for AI in Society.