Top Ten Practical Uses of AI for Humanity

I wrote a book on the topic of AI and automation six years ago, well before the fool’s gold rush of commercial AI products and LLM wizardry and some of what I predicted is still on its way, one leap at a time. I’ve also written on the perils of AI, the misguided uses and the dangerous experiments that are only accelerating and endangering life on Earth as we know it. One common thread in my thinking is Directed AI, where we use it not to replace our minds or creativity, but to do difficult tasks we need done. Sure, the fun stuff is entertaining and gets our attention but someone out there needs to get us focused on what matters and then they need to convince our leaders to take action. Artificial Intelligence is basically an amplifier for parts of our minds—a tireless, non-sentient, stand-in proxy that can work with large data sets in ways we can’t. Well actually, it IS us doing it, but using a meta tool for the raw crunching of the Machine Knowledge trained by the Machine Learning.

While the uses are far more comprehensive and granular than this crude list, I propose these things as some of the most doable given the state-of-the-art and what’s coming soon. This is the boring stuff that actually improves life for everyone.

Urban Garbage Sorting—Imagine no more sorting out your recycling or batteries or other garbage. Vision and magnetic enabled AI…