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Ask HN: As an AI expert, where to work to help humanity?

• MeteorMarc 4y ago
  Have AI fit your newly ordered clothes so that you do not have to return ill fitting clothes.
• mandmandam 4y ago
  I don't know. But - I'd like to encourage you for asking. That's a really good question. If more tech-minded folk asked questions like this, we'd be doing a whole lot better as a species. My personal hot-take is that understanding how people get manipulated and coerced into acting against their own interests is essential to our survival. Think big tobacco tactics, big oil climate denial, manufacture of consent, kayfabe politics. I don't know how - or even if - AI can help us create systems that offer protection against such manipulation. My hunch is that it's worth thinking about. Some examples: Maybe AI can analyze vast amounts of data to manage pollution - soil, air, water, etc - in such a way that manipulation of the results is impossible. However, the institutions which manage this stuff seem quite thoroughly broken (Superfund sites, for example, or Deepwater Horizon, or pesticide buildup). Maybe AI can analyze currency transactions to identify bribes, sinks in the money system where value flows out. However, we've seen many examples of this stuff coming out into the open without major consequence (Paradise, Panama, bank bailouts, CDS, etc etc). Maybe AI could help identify those most susceptible to manipulation in order to help & protect them, rather than to sway their vote, turn them into 'useful idiots', and sell them stuff. That would be "bad" for the economy (and fantastic for society). Maybe AI could help overhaul education - I think this is both essential, and terrifying. I won't ramble on though. Best of luck man.
• Nextgrid 4y ago
  AI is not a threat to humanity. Humanity's greed is a threat to humanity. You want to help humanity? Find a way to kill off advertising. It's the cancer that's not just funding the current downsides of technology, but reshaping the technology industry to serve it even more.
  • p1esk 4y ago
    Find a way to kill off advertising. Wtf?
    • Nextgrid 4y ago
      Well not literally kill off but regulate it away so it’s no longer profitable. A large chunk of the problems we currently see with social media, privacy, etc are incentivised by advertising. You remove that and those problems are significantly reduced - people won’t pay for a social network that intentionally prioritises outrage or fake/misleading news over their friends’ content for example - the only reason it happens right now is because advertising pays for it.
      • p1esk 4y ago
        Advertising funds most of the internet. If you remove it, who's going to pay for it? You do understand that someone has to pay for it, right? Or do you propose every social network starts charging its users? Do you really want and expect people to pay for google search, youtube, facebook, instagram, twitter, reddit, etc?
        • Nextgrid 4y ago
          > Or do you propose every social network starts charging its users? Do you really want and expect people to pay for google search, youtube, facebook, instagram, twitter, reddit, etc? Yes, that's my point. People will pay for things they find valuable, switch to a cheaper alternative or do without (a lot of spammy content that is currently only funded by ad impressions and survives because you can't ask for a refund on an ad impression will no longer survive as nobody would pay).
• chronicler 4y ago
  I'm actively looking for a co-founder that is an expert in ML.
• brudgers 4y ago
  The soup kitchen. Does identifying as an AI expert preclude starting small? Good luck.
  • doubtfuluser 4y ago
    Excellent question and surely you have a point. The thing I’m looking for: is there a way I can use my profession for something good? I’m already helping out on weekends in the local equivalent of “soup kitchen”. But I’m rethinking life and what I spend my work on.
    • brudgers 4y ago
      Since most human activity doesn’t solve the deep problems of abject poverty, a good working hypothesis it that AI doesn’t either. Even if it does, there is no shortage of people who would like to direct large amounts of resources from a desk chair and feel like they were do-gooders for it. Andreesen didn’t write “software is feeding the world.” Quite the opposite in fact. And he was in a position to shape some of the world. I’ve met developers with do-good dream jobs. They are small scale and opened up because the developer paid their dues over many years. The simplest way to change what you work on is to change the kind of work you do. E.g. go to nursing school and the possibilities are endless. But you’ll have to change what “being professional“ looks like. Or quit your job and start the organization that does what you think needs doing.
• badpun 4y ago
  Probably universities are your best bet? Usually, the novel ideas get developed there and only later are deployed by various government (or multi-government) agencies. The deployment state requires less of expertise than the R&D part, so you may not be needed there.
• gradschool 4y ago
  If I were in your position I'd investigate agricultural applications. There are some companies involved in vertical farming and precision farming, whose crucial enablers are image recognition and autonomous drone technology. The benefits are drastic reductions in the need for water, land, and pesticides. If you can't get any companies to hire you then you can always volunteer to assist a university research group in that area provided you can convince the PI that you'll need negligible supervision.
• altdataseller 4y ago
  Create a Chrome extension that can analyze the materials used in any e-commerce product to tell you how sustainable it is.