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Addressing the Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence

Technology is a driving force in society; our economy and productivity depend on machines taking on an increasing amount of humanity’s workload. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to be 3000 times more disruptive to society than the Industrial Revolution. Since the Industrial Revolution was a period of substantial upheaval, it’s understandable why tech powerhouses like Elon Musk and the late Stephen Hawking have alarmist attitudes towards the impact of AI on humanity’s future.

However, Artificial Intelligence has quietly integrated into society and is already helping underserved communities like the visually impaired. For example, IBM Watson is matching visually impaired people with a suitable guide dog. The cost to train a guide dog over two years is approximately $50,000. Based on a sample of 105 guide dogs, Watson’s AI machine learning was able to predict with 100% accuracy which guide dogs would successfully graduate from the training program. AI has the power to unlock new human (and puppy!) capabilities that will change our socioeconomic landscape and improve lives. Just imagine the impact of graduating more successful guide dogs for the visually impaired community.

WorkDone is a public benefit corporation with the mission of ameliorating the social impact of the AI we’re creating. We also believe that we can unleash human entrepreneurial creativity through the Foundation because humans strive for purpose.

AI frees workers from repetitive manual tasks like approving employee vacation time and processing expense reports, leaving people free to complete the higher value work. We aim to be ethical and practical by supporting non-profit communities designed for society to equally share in the abundance of AI.

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