"We've used a translational approach in the past to have a global impact on emerging technologies, from our role in the creation of the internet to the computer graphics and visualization revolution," Manish Parashar writes in the Salt Lake Tribune.
"Now, we want to take on that leading role again."
Parashar is the director of the Responsible AI Initiative at the University of Utah, a $100 million project that aims to use artificial intelligence "to yield viable answers to such problems as environmental sustainability, disease prevention and treatment, mental health, natural disaster prevention and management, and other major challenges," he writes.
But Parashar, who helped lead the National Artificial Intelligence Research Task Force, warns that using artificial intelligence "to create and spread misinformation and its ability to shatter privacy and intellectual property protections" is " rightfully generating concern, from its potential to perpetuate bias to its use to create and spread misinformation and its ability to shatter privacy and intellectual property protections."
To that end, the initiative plans to "bring computer scientists together in collaboration with scholars from a range of relevant disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, medicine, and law," to "model fair, equitable, ethical and transparent applications, overcoming knowledge, technical and social barriers," and to "build guardrails
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Three social enterprises were recognized at the 2013 President’s Challenge Social Enterprise Award for their major contributions to society. SATA CommHealth and Bliss Restaurant landed Social Enterprise of the Year titles, while Bettr Barista Coffee Academy bagged the award for Social Enterprise Start-up of the Year.