Digital giants dominate the cloud and ecommerce markets, and part of the reason for their dominance is artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. The good news is that mainstream enterprises can learn from their experiences and employ cutting-edge technologies. 

That’s the word from R. “Ray” Wang who provides a roadmap for AI success in his latest book, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Wang calls the capability needed to move forward “AI Smart Services” that help automate precision decisions. “To fine-tune precision decisions at scale-that is, to develop decision velocity, [data-driven enterprises] must automate the process of turning signal intelligence into a decision or action. And the way to do this is by creating AI smart services-automated processes powered by AI.” 

The catch is, of course, “AI smart services are not easy to master,” Wang cautions. “They require more than just great algorithms.” He outlines six requirements for advancing in the AI era:

Computing power. To develop AI smart services, data-driven enterprises “must have access to or own cheap computing power,” Wang says. “The ultimate metric for AI rests in pricing not in terms of computing power, but in terms of potential cost per kilowatt hour. The cheapest rate of computing power may determine the cost structure for AI smart services. The most efficient code for finding signal intelligence will provide a cost advantage for each decision made.”

Time. Time waits for no one, Wang says. “The ability to compress time, or take tasks that would normally take weeks and complete them in minutes, provides [data-driven enterprises] an inherent advantage over their competitors.”  However, “AI smart services need more time to identify new patterns. That’s why early adopters who train their AI smart services to process the massive petabytes of data coming in to them gain an advantage. The earlier and the quicker the AI smart services learns, the more precision they put back into their algorithms.” 

Math talent. Algorithms are only as good as the math talent behind it, Wang says. “Success requires hiring digital artisans — those who can balance right brain and left brain expertise. Digital giants typically have armies of data scientists and a brain trust on hand to fine tune AI smart services for their data-driven enterprises.”

Vertical specific expertise. To make precision decisions, AI smart services “must understand nuances of the various verticals in which they operate — such as size of company, industries, and cultural regions.”

Natural user interfaces and user experiences. Data-driven enterprises must develop AI smart services “that engage users in a variety of human computer interfaces that mimic human interaction in terms of their sensory, visualization, voice, and gesture
capabilities. The interfaces might range from chat bots to virtual assistants, and from augmented reality to brain wave mind readers and computer vision.” 

Contextually relevant recommendations. “Once users are confident about how the system arrives at a recommendation, these AI driven smart services start automating decisions-augmenting humanity, accelerating decision making, and ultimately providing filters that deliver situational awareness (the ability to perceive one’s surroundings, events in a timeline, and the potential future state.”

The post Six essential artificial intelligence capabilities leveraged by the digital giants appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

Growing use of AI for health presents governments, providers, and communities with opportunities and challenges

Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for improving the delivery of healthcare and medicine worldwide, but only if ethics and human rights are put at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, according to new WHO guidance published today.

The report, Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health, is the result of 2 years of consultations held by a panel of international experts appointed by WHO.

“Like all new technology, artificial intelligence holds enormous potential for improving the health of millions of people around the world, but like all technology it can also be misused and cause harm,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This important new report provides a valuable guide for countries on how to maximize the benefits of AI, while minimizing its risks and avoiding its pitfalls.”

Artificial intelligence can be, and in some wealthy countries is already being used to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and screening for diseases; to assist with clinical care; strengthen health research and drug development, and support diverse public health interventions, such as disease surveillance, outbreak response, and health systems management.

AI could also empower patients to take greater control of their own health care and better understand their evolving needs. It could also enable resource-poor countries and rural communities, where patients often have restricted access to health-care workers or medical professionals, to bridge gaps in access to health services.

However, WHO’s new report cautions against overestimating the benefits of AI for health, especially when this occurs at the expense of core investments and strategies required to achieve universal health coverage.

It also points out that opportunities are linked to challenges and risks, including unethical collection and use of health data; biases encoded in algorithms, and risks of AI to patient safety, cybersecurity, and the environment.      

For example, while private and public sector investment in the development and deployment of AI is critical, the unregulated use of AI could subordinate the rights and interests of patients and communities to the powerful commercial interests of technology companies or the interests of governments in surveillance and social control.

The report also emphasizes that systems trained primarily on data collected from individuals in high-income countries may not perform well for individuals in low- and middle-income settings.

AI systems should therefore be carefully designed to reflect the diversity of socio-economic and health-care settings. They should be accompanied by training in digital skills, community engagement and awareness-raising, especially for millions of healthcare workers who will require digital literacy or retraining if their roles and functions are automated, and who must contend with machines that could challenge the decision-making and autonomy of providers and patients.

Ultimately, guided by existing laws and human rights obligations, and new laws and policies that enshrine ethical principles, governments, providers, and designers must work together to address ethics and human rights concerns at every stage of an AI technology’s design, development, and deployment. 

Six principles to ensure AI works for the public interest in all countries

To limit the risks and maximize the opportunities intrinsic to the use of AI for health, WHO provides the following principles as the basis for AI regulation and governance:

Protecting human autonomy: In the context of health care, this means that humans should remain in control of health-care systems and medical decisions; privacy and confidentiality should be protected, and patients must give valid informed consent through appropriate legal frameworks for data protection.

Promoting human well-being and safety and the public interest. The designers of AI technologies should satisfy regulatory requirements for safety, accuracy and efficacy for well-defined use cases or indications. Measures of quality control in practice and quality improvement in the use of AI must be available.

Ensuring transparency, explainability and intelligibility. Transparency requires that sufficient information be published or documented before the design or deployment of an AI technology. Such information must be easily accessible and facilitate meaningful public consultation and debate on how the technology is designed and how it should or should not be used.

Fostering responsibility and accountability. Although AI technologies perform specific tasks, it is the responsibility of stakeholders to ensure that they are used under appropriate conditions and by appropriately trained people. Effective mechanisms should be available for questioning and for redress for individuals and groups that are adversely affected by decisions based on algorithms.

Ensuring inclusiveness and equity. Inclusiveness requires that AI for health be designed to encourage the widest possible equitable use and access, irrespective of age, sex, gender, income, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability or other characteristics protected under human rights codes.

Promoting AI that is responsive and sustainable. Designers, developers and users should continuously and transparently assess AI applications during actual use to determine whether AI responds adequately and appropriately to expectations and requirements. AI systems should also be designed to minimize their environmental consequences and increase energy efficiency. Governments and companies should address anticipated disruptions in the workplace, including training for health-care workers to adapt to the use of AI systems, and potential job losses due to use of automated systems.         

These principles will guide future WHO work to support efforts to ensure that the full potential of AI for healthcare and public health will be used for the benefits of all.

The post WHO issues first global report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in health and six guiding principles for its design and use appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.