TIME100 Impact Awards in Dubai: How Will AI Transform Society?

TIME

From the TIME100 Impact Awards in Dubai, we ask our guests: What is the most significant way that AI is going to transform society in the next 5 years?

Transcript

00:00 I think that AI is going to transform society in many ways,

00:05 but I would say healthcare is probably one of the most important.

00:10 But we need to include everybody,

00:13 so that we can include the global south as well as the global north.

00:18 At the moment, AI is very divided.

00:21 You know, I'm actually thinking that society is going to transform

00:24 what we understand of as AI really significantly over the next few years.

00:29 I think we have so much to do in terms of learning what AI is and can be

00:34 and what it's also not, and moving more towards this idea of collective intelligence

00:40 and hybrid intelligences is, I think, the way forward.

00:43 It's going to make people smarter.

00:46 It's going to amplify human intelligence.

00:49 And if you're trying to think about, like, previous events

00:53 where people suddenly got smarter,

00:56 one of them was the invention of the printing press.

00:58 So perhaps the generalization of AI is going to have the same effect on humanity

01:04 as the invention of the printing press.

01:06 I think the AI evolution is happening,

01:09 but we often think about it as impacting the developed world,

01:12 advanced economies, Europe, China, the US.

01:16 And in reality, AI is also going to impact tremendously the developing world.

01:20 And this is something we are quite excited about.

01:23 Amazing opportunities in education, in healthcare,

01:27 for the whole world, not just the advanced economies.

01:30 Will AI be transformative in five years? Yes.

01:33 Will it be for good? Depends on all of us, right?

01:36 To make sure that we build AI tools to create radical new improvements

01:41 in how we tackle the issues around the world,

01:44 and we make sure that the advancements of AI reach everyone democratically, right?

01:48 So I think that balance is important.

01:50 The example I always use is it's been, what, 30 years since the internet was created,

01:55 and even today, half the world has no access to the internet, right?

01:59 So even though the internet's changed your life and my life,

02:01 it hasn't even touched half the world, like over 3 billion people,

02:06 less than half the world.

02:07 But I think that's scary, and I want to make sure that AI doesn't...

02:11 We don't just repeat the same mistakes with AI,

02:13 because then 30 years down the line, we'll be like,

02:15 "Oh my God, AI has been amazing for you and me,"

02:17 but there's still so many people who don't have access to it.

02:20 So I think giving them access, but still protecting people,

02:22 that balance is very important.

02:24 I think the main thing is, however we think about expertise,

02:27 and not just the arts in everything,

02:29 we will be challenged and pushed to be more,

02:32 and I think that's very intimidating for a lot of people,

02:35 but I'm here to really celebrate that when you embrace it,

02:39 and when you improve AI literacy,

02:41 there is actually a whole new world of expertise out there,

02:44 and anyone from a working-class background from a different place

02:47 can now have access to intelligence,

02:49 and that potential is huge, and we should not avoid it.

02:51 it should be embraced and I'm excited by that potential.

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