In many countries like China and the U.S., retirement is increasingly becoming a distant vision, even for the old. Retirees are looking to start working again. Homelessness is a growing problem. A significant reason is the ever-increasing cost of living and rising inflation.
At the same time, the value we attach to human life is decreasing, as evidenced by a diminishing life expectancy. There is an urgent need to rein in costs and still enhance the quality of life. Life should be valued high, while living it should not be expensive. Investing in Artificial Intelligence can help facilitate these.
When I was debating whether to relocate to the United States more than two decades ago, my friends told me that the value the country attaches to life is far greater compared to any other country and essential commodities are surprisingly affordable.
Unfortunately, that seems to be changing for various reasons – a corrupted value system, mental health issues, diseases, drug overdoses, the resulting strain on the healthcare system, and many more. No wonder, the American quality of life has been declining.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can’t fix everything, of course, but it can help alleviate financial pressures on individuals and communities. And that will help improve the quality of life.
AI can help lower costs and, owing to productivity gains, give time back to people to focus more on the quality of their and others’ lives. By automating repetitive, mundane tasks and making the work more interesting, jobs can become more satisfying, reducing anxieties and stress levels, and boosting mental health.
AI can help identify opportunities for improved efficiency and democratize access to services including healthcare and education. Enhancing access reduces costs significantly. The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in May 2022 reported that the proportion of the US hospitals using AI has increased thrice since 2020.
Significant productivity improvements can be achieved in any vertical that AI is applied to. Increased productivity translates to reduced costs for the manufacturers and lowered prices of consumer goods to the customers. In transportation, AI can help reduce congestion and optimize routes, thereby saving fuel.
Automating tasks in financial management using AI goes way beyond algorithmic trading by executing trades based on analytics generated from the market and opportunities identified. In addition to keeping the trading costs low, this also removes human error due to emotions, biases, and unnecessary apprehensions that are often a cause for poor performance.
AI has unleashed major breakthroughs in preventive care and personalized medicine lowering the risk for expensive treatments and hospitalization. Public safety can be enhanced by AI enabled predictive policing, efficient emergency response, and improved disaster management.
In my machine learning classes, sustainability topics play a big role. Students are incentivized to work on a semester-long project applying machine learning for sustainable outcomes. Sustainable practices lead to a better environment, help avoid calamities, and therefore lower costs. Using AI for precision farming, optimizing agricultural practices, and making them sustainable can lower food costs. All these and more lead to lowering inflation.
Of course, governance and social factors always trump technology. If the government decides to increase its spending like in the case of the American Rescue Plan and CARES Act, or if the national debt ceiling continues to be raised, or if the Federal Reserve increases the money supply, AI may not be able to help much.
Corporate greed, excessive price increases, opportunistic labor practices, and other such vile circumstances can also create inequities and inflation that AI may not be able to help with. Also, AI is not entirely free of flaws. AI deployments are often impacted by privacy, fairness, and job displacement concerns, to name a few. In my talk to the University of Bolton audiences, I explained the social sustainability impacts of AI.
It is therefore imperative that AI be used responsibly. AI is certainly no panacea but will go a long way in ensuring an affordable quality of life while lowering costs and keeping inflation in check if used ethically, responsibly, and in a manner fair and beneficial to society. For all these reasons and more, investing in AI can help in an affordable quality of life and retirement in the long run.
