Google’s Research Team Emphasizes the Importance of Society-Centered AI
As a research director at Google, Anoop Sinha, alongside Vice President Yossi Matias, recognizes the need for AI to be socially beneficial. The goal is to apply AI responsibly to benefit society and the environment at a scale that was previously impossible.
Society-Centered AI, an extension of Human-Centered AI, focuses on understanding the aggregate needs of society alongside individual user needs. The approach involves collective efforts to address societal needs by listening to communities and partners to understand major issues and challenges.
Recent AI advances have allowed for unprecedented societal-level capabilities, such as addressing non-standard speech, health issues, and crisis response. These advancements have led to collaborations with various organizations and academic communities to address global challenges.
For example, Google Research’s Project Euphonia has made a significant impact by allowing users with non-standard speech to train personalized speech recognition models. Additionally, collective efforts have been made with organizations like ARMMAN to provide scalable, low-cost technology solutions for maternal health in rural India.
The ongoing efforts to predict and combat floods in multiple countries have highlighted the significance of Society-Centered AI. Continued engagement with communities has led to the refinement and expansion of these efforts, with a broader impact on society.
In support of Society-Centered AI research, Google has funded 18 university research proposals to create beneficial applications worldwide, such as AI-driven monitoring of attitude polarization in conflict-affected countries and women’s empowerment.
In conclusion, the Society-Centered AI approach as shown by Google Research’s projects exemplifies the potential of AI to bring about positive change on a societal level. By understanding and addressing the aggregate needs of society, AI can be leveraged to benefit communities and individuals around the world.