Artificial intelligence (AI) enables people to spend more time with those that matter the most. AI is bringing people together, whether it's assisting in the planning of a family vacation, getting to a place securely, allowing everyone to see each other on a video call, or making gift shopping a little easier. The continuous evolution of AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we live, work, and interact with each other. While AI is often portrayed as a divisive force that could lead to job losses and social inequality, it also has the power to bring people together and create new opportunities for collaboration and cooperation. In this article, we will explore some of the ways in which AI can be used to bridge social, cultural, and linguistic barriers and foster greater understanding and empathy among diverse communities. One of the most significant benefits of AI is its ability to facilitate communication across different languages.

We already observe the positive effects of AI in almost every field, and foresee its potential to help address our sustainable development goals and the urgent challenges for the preservation of the environment. We also perceive that the risks related to the safety, security, confidentiality, and fairness of AI systems, the threats to free will of possibly manipulative systems, as well as the impact of AI on the economy, employment, human rights, equality, diversity, inclusion, and social cohesion need to be better assessed. The development and use of AI must be guided by principles of social cohesion, environmental sustainability, resource sharing, and inclusion. It has to integrate human rights, and social, cultural, and ethical values of democracy. It requires continued education and training as well as continual assessment of its effects through social deliberation.

It has been theorized that positive intergroup relations can reduce prejudice and facilitate peace. However, supporting empirical evidence is weak, particularly in the context of real-world conflict. Mousa randomized Christian Iraqi refugees to soccer teams that were composed of either all Christian players or a mixture of Christian and Muslim players (see the Perspective by Paluck and Clark). Playing on the same team as Muslims had positive effects on Christian players' attitudes and behaviors toward Muslims within the context of soccer, but these effects did not generalize to non-soccer contexts. These findings have implications for the potential benefits and limits of positive intergroup contact for achieving peace between groups. Science , this issue p. [866][1]; see also p. [769][2] Can intergroup contact build social cohesion after war? I randomly assigned Iraqi Christians displaced by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to an all-Christian soccer team or to a team mixed with Muslims. The intervention improved behaviors toward Muslim peers: Christians with Muslim teammates were more likely to vote for a Muslim (not on their team) to receive a sportsmanship award, register for a mixed team next season, and train with Muslims 6 months after the intervention. The intervention did not substantially affect behaviors in other social contexts, such as patronizing a restaurant in Muslim-dominated Mosul or attending a mixed social event, nor did it yield consistent effects on intergroup attitudes. Although contact can build tolerant behaviors toward peers within an intervention, building broader social cohesion outside of it is more challenging. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abb3153 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abb9990

As AI technologies advance at pace, governments across the world are developing national strategies to harness their economic benefits for national advantage and societal well-being. The potential of AI to improve the lives and livelihoods of people across the world is significant, from helping address climate change and food security, to supporting elderly care and healthcare delivery. However, these technologies also have the potential to reinforce social divisions and inequalities, with implications for those already at the margins of society. Advances in science have long relied on international flows of people and ideas. At a time when questions about how the benefits of technological progress are shared across society are at the fore of public and policy debate, maintaining strong international collaborations can play an important role in connecting communities and ensuring that technology advances in ways that benefit all in society.

As a young researcher tasked with pioneering AI in my corporate research lab, this is an exciting opportunity. We are at the very peak of the AI hype curve. This is no ordinary academic conference. The Japanese had announced their 5th Generation computing project that promised fundamental logical processing. The USA responded with a 10 year research project CyC to give computers common sense reasoning power.