From smart assistants to search engine results and banking apps, artificial intelligence (AI) is already all around us and affecting our lives and work. But there are challenges around improving public trust in AI, broadening engagement in the processes for developing AI tools and better demonstrating their potential for social good.
At the start of 2020, Nesta in Scotland awarded £105,000 of grant funding to seven projects using innovative AI tools to help tackle social challenges.
This report summarises the insights from these cutting-edge AI innovators and their projects. It makes recommendations for wider consideration, based on the experience of frontline AI practitioners, on how Scotland can work to support more and better AI projects with a focus on social good.
Key findings
- AI has the potential to help address social issues in Scotland.
- To make this happen will require investment in socially-beneficial AI from the private and public sectors.
- AI technologies should be developed and designed ethically in co-production with those affected by them to address inequalities and biases and ensure positive outcomes for everyone in society.
