In the coming decades, the global community will face a number of major challenges, including climate change and global overpopulation. Ambarish Mitra, co-founder of Greyparrot, a computer vision-based automated waste sorting startup, explained how artificial intelligence (AI) can help humanity - nRead more Read more in the article "Made in Russia".

THE CHAIN KEY

"There are 7 billion people living on Earth now, and by 2050 that number will increase to 10 billion. All of these people will need to be fed, but the planet's resources are limited. The climate is changing rapidly, we need to prioritise in the right way. We can use AI technology to reduce the negative impacts and build a more sustainable world. This is a critical tool in our hands," says Mitra.

According to the expert, the debate around the dangers that AI can bring is limiting the development of the technology. "AI is turning into a support service, but there is really no threat of replacing humans with technology right now, we shouldn't think about it. Technology should help us improve our lives. The important question is how serious and breakthrough the AI revolution will be, how technology will affect the whole society, our future, the protection of personal data, the future of the labour market. These are tough questions that are waiting to be answered," he said.

HEALTHCARE

The field of human health is now coming to the forefront, and the key to affordable medicine also lies in the development of AI, Mitra believes. "If the global population is 10 billion people by 2050, there will obviously be a shortage of hospital beds. The increase in the medical workforce will not keep up with the rate of births. Last year and a half we existed in the conditions of pandemic and saw how we lack resources even in the developed countries", - the expert said.

Genetic sequencing - determining the sequence of nucleotides in a DNA molecule - will play a big role in the development of medicine, he said. "Thanks to precision medicine, treatment for patients will be selected based on genetic information. While at the moment we are looking at drugs that are suitable for a general audience, with AI we are getting the medicine of the future, where treatments are tailored to individual approaches," Mitra said.

The technology can also detect cancer cells on MRI faster than humans can. "This way we will conserve energy and human resources," he said confidently.

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture is another important aspect that will undergo change by 2050, according to the expert.

"According to UN projections, production needs to double by 2050 to prevent catastrophic food shortages. AI technology in agriculture can make a significant contribution to solving the problems. The main factor here is robotization. You can use unmanned tractors for perishable goods, such as picking fruit that is ripe," Mitra noted.

Also, the introduction of AI in the field will allow for more accurate monitoring of environmental and weather conditions at crop sites, to develop long-term planning.

"Water resources are also a critical factor that also needs to be monitored. They are limited, we cannot use them the way we used to, we have to be frugal," he added and explained that the world needs advanced desalination technologies.

EDUCATION

In the new reality that humanity is entering, knowledge becomes the most important asset, Mitra believes.

"AI will be the tool that will become the spread of knowledge," he said.

The expert noted that about 700-800 million people are illiterate today.

"This raises the question of what is the true purpose of education. In fact, its purpose is not to boast of a diploma, but to gain real knowledge that will help us make informed decisions in the future. Access to information and education should be a fundamental human right. And neurolinguistic programming and machine vision are the technologies that will help us disseminate knowledge, provide access to it," he concluded.

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Author: Maria Buzanakova