AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health by William B. Weeks and Juan M. Lavista Ferres.
William holds a BS in Biology/ChemistryBachelor of Science from Whitman College, MD from The University of Texas Medical Branch, and PhD in Economics from Aix-Marseille University France. Today he is Director, AI for Health at Microsoft and an Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Public Health.
Juan holds a BS in computer science from the Catholic University in Uruguay, MA in Data Mining and Machine Learning from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in AI on Healthcare from Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam.
With a foreword by Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, AI for Good is certainly addressing the exploration of how artificial intelligence is being used today to address the world’s most pressing challenges.
Readers will discover how Microsoft’s AI leaders and researchers are obviously using AI to transform the world for the better. The impact AI is making on data analytics is amazing. William and Juan are detailing their efforts so far.
Sustainability, Humanitarian action, and Health.
William and Juan bring to the surface a number of interesting deployments of AI services to demonstrate how this transformational technology can make a real and sustainable impact. The book is focusing upon three areas that are ripe for AI assistance: sustainability, humanitarian action, and health.
Sustainability has been certainly turbocharged with AI. By assisting the science community, the ability for AI to provide efficient analysis of incredibility large datasets.
These are proving to be amazing at lowering the time to measure for example, satellite imagery to address deforestation and the impact upon climate change. With this new efficiency in data, policy makers to make better decisions which are free from human bias.
AI is in fact impacting Humanitarian areas by addressing the ability to more accurately plan disaster responses around the globe. Providing up to the minute datasets to first responders on site, AI data is definitely much more accurate in supporting needed services for those populations impacted.
And finally, the healthcare area, William’s focus is seeing AI provide productivity enhancements for patients, reducing costs, while expanding access to care, even globally. This shows how AI will ultimately drive better health outcomes. They do promote an ethical framework with AI empowered to drive significant change impacting lives across the globe.
In conclusion, William and Juan have been demonstrating practical AI solutions that can be easily replicated. It was interesting to learn how this impacts entrepreneurs, policymakers, regulators, and even non-profit volunteers and NGO professionals, who were thought to be to far removed from the real benefits of AI. All proceeds from the book support the American Red Cross.