General Discussion

Google DeepMind has already used it to solve one of the major persistent problems in biology - predicting protein folding: https://deepmind.google/science/alphafold/

They won the Nobel Prize for the equivalent of billions of years of research mapping millions of protein structures that can be used to develop new medicines, including new categories of antibiotics that resistant bacteria are not resistant to.

AI can also be used to discover and safely test new materials like biodegradable substitutes for plastics, cheaper and more efficient renewable energy technology, effective nuclear fusion (which require materials that can safely withstand enormous heat energy), and quantum computing technology which could reduce the need for massive data centres.

Creating a digital twin makes it easier to anticipate diseases and personalise treatments for them. We're actually not that far away from either curing, preventing or making easily manageable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimers as well as learning how to reverse cellular aging. AI significantly speeds up the diagnostic process and is already more accurate than most doctors.

It will also accelerate development of lab-grown human tissue organoids that be used to reduce the need for animal testing and can speed up and reduce risk from human clinical trials of new medicines.

There's also the potential for AI combined with robotics to replace human drudgery, reduce the cost of everything (replacing a person with a bullshit job they hate and who you need to pay $60,000 a year for 2000 hours of work with a robot that costs $5,000 for 8760 hours of work in a just society would mean that person's outputs should cost 2% as much as they do now). This would free up more time for people to spend with their friends and family and pursing creative interests. But we need new economic and social institutions that let us do this in a humane and rational way - not holding my breath but that's one of the potential benefits of AI if we organise society to use it well.

I'm not saying there aren't risks and downsides. But you asked for the potential positives of AI and those are the ones I see - real opportunities to solve climate change, reduce pollution and waste, flood the world with cheap cleaner energy, free up people's time and energy, and find faster and more ethical ways to treat devastating diseases and extend human life and quality of life.

The problem isn't AI, it's the people using it who want to cling onto outdated capitalistic models of exploitation and power.