Exploring the positive potential of AI with Eric Rice of USC's Center for AI in Society

Recent data indicates that essentially 90% of Fortune 1000 companies are increasing investments in AI as the global AI market size is projected to reach $184 billion by year’s end and $826 billion by 2030. 

AI is officially “off and running,” but questions about its consequences abound. Like many tools, AI has positive and negative potential. As part of CannonDesign’s commitment to advance AI solutions that support our core Ambitions and advance our clients’ missions, we are committed to ongoing dialogue with some of the brightest minds in AI adoption. 
 
Recently, we were fortunate to have Eric Rice, director of the University of Southern California’s Center for AI in Society, join CannonDesign’s Mike Tunkey, design principal, and Felix Kabo, director of research, for a conversation on the optimistic potential of AI moving forward. 

We have now published key excerpts from the first half of the conversation below. We will publish Part II and the full audio files next week and look forward to continuing this conversation with other leading thinkers in AI over the months ahead.

Conversation summary

A significant portion of this conversation focused on the positive potential that can emerge when social, computer and spatial scientists work together and with artificial intelligence to address changes on a city scale. Below are key excerpts — both in text and video format — that highlight that focus.

How AI necessitates multi-dimensional collaboration

“I am a sociologist by training, and what my team realized when working with computer scientists at our institute on AI initiatives is that our complementary knowledge was much more powerful than when we worked in silos... And if we are going to have AI make a meaningful impact on society, that synergy must be realized. And so social science, I think is really going to continue to be important.” (Eric Rice) 

“To illustrate the need for this collaboration, think about surgery. There is no way for AI to reach its full potential in this arena without spatial intelligence. To fully realize the power, you need to understand very precise movement, a genuinely accurate visualization of human anatomy. That's spatial intelligence. That is why collaboration is so key.” (Felix Kabo) 

Leveraging AI to solve wicked social problems

“We talk internally a lot about the concept of digital twins. And as you talk about getting smarter and cost-effective but realistic simulations, I cannot help but think about creating them for cities, campuses, urban settings, very complex systems with multiple variables. In an AI digital twin, we can simulate real-world scenarios, new polices, etc.

And, sure, those digital twins cost a few hundred thousand dollars to build, but think about that in the context of bad policy applied on a national or global scale? You could save billions or trillions of dollars — not to mention make better decisions for communities – by using digital twins and embracing these new simulation tools like digital twins” (Felix Kabo) 

“Beyond just the opportunity for better decision making, I think the other real opportunity here is inclusion. It is scary to some professionals that anyone with a Midjourney license can create realistic renderings of architecture because it threatens the status quo. But that can be okay, that can be exciting. It empowers us to collectively surface, test and explore ideas at an unprecedented pace. It allows us to bring more people into the conversation of what spaces look like, what our cities should be organized around. And, again, so much of urban renewal over the past century has happened to communities, I think we can use AI to help them have more agency in their futures.” (Mike Tunkey) 

More about the USC Center for AI in Society

The USC Center for AI in Society aims to develop, test, iterate and demonstrate how AI can be used to tackle society's problems. The team is currently focused on work around homelessness, climate change, health, and equity.