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Artificial intelligence (AI) has been lauded as a new driver for growth and productivity. But AI must be more than a profit-making tool. We must seize on its potential to accelerate a sustainable, equitable and fair economy.
To achieve this, AI should be put in the hands of social entrepreneurs, especially those serving communities most affected by social inequality and the climate crisis. They can help find and scale new solutions to our most pressing challenges.
The Schwab Foundation’s AI for Social Innovation initiative, co-initiated by Microsoft and supported by the EY organisation, recently built on the experiences of 300 social innovators to show how they are using AI to address healthcare issues, offer environmental solutions and generate economic opportunities for marginalised communities.
In Brazil, for example, black and indigenous women are at much greater risk of dying from cervical cancer. While AI offers opportunities for increasing access to diagnostics, data is skewed towards white patients. That’s why the social enterprise SAS Brasil is now developing datasets that can tackle data bias and enable diagnostics for black and indigenous women.
