
Ethical fields that use AI for other reasons than mining personal data? - illlogic2
As a field that I want go into, AI and data science seems like it is being use for some pretty shallow, unethical reasons (mass manipulation, advertising, disinformation etc). Does anyone on HN do cool work with AI that makes the world a better place? Like this one story that was posted a while ago:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blog.google&#x2F;topics&#x2F;machine-learning&#x2F;fight-against-illegal-deforestation-tensorflow&#x2F;
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dfraser992
I am going to be working on a ML + expert system + genetic algo hybrid for the
UK's Network Rail, specifically its research organization. Managing delayed
trains is a big issue - the trains impacted by the delayed train can be dealt
with more or less, but trying to figure out the best course of action to deal
with the trains delayed by that set (and so on) is essentially a NP hard
problem. Competing cost functions to optimize etc and the traditional methods
are not as effective anymore due to infrastructure changes, more trains, more
passengers, etc.

There has been a lot of academic research, but only in the past few years have
transport companies been investigating and implementing more sophisticated
solutions (Japan is of course a decade ahead of the West).

So what you are looking for is out there, but you have to get away from the IT
industry. Look for jobs involving IT that involve supporting businesses /
business sectors that are not primarily IT or consumer focused. I feel your
pain - I got tired of only seeing companies focused on marketing and all that
sort of thing. This is more a research contract to investigate the
feasibility, so perhaps you should find a university and do some networking.

Finance is another sector to look at, but I don't know about the better world
aspect of that...

