10 Ways AI Was Used for Good This Year

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December 20, 2022

Dear Reader, I'm filling in for Sophie Bushwick today. This week, we've bucked against the fears and doomsayers who worry that artificial intelligence might lead to the destruction of society and compiled all the ways that AI has actually made life better this year. I think it's a great list and a good reminder of how this technology is already integrated--in crucial ways--into our everyday lives for the better. Since our team will be off for the holidays next week we'll be skipping the newsletter. So we hope this roundup will give you plenty of tech stories to read into the new year. Best wishes to you and yours!

Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Artificial Intelligence 10 Ways AI Was Used for Good This Year Artificial intelligence can improve health, protect biodiversity and even write wine reviews By Sophie Bushwick

Medicine First 'Vagina-on-a-Chip' Will Help Researchers Test Drugs A new chip re-creates the human vagina's unique microbiome By Ida Emilie Steinmark

Climate Change Race to Develop Carbon Removal Technology Begins with Record Funding The Biden administration launched a historic effort on Tuesday to commercialize direct air capture technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere By Corbin Hiar,Carlos Anchondo,E&E News

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Energy Nuclear Fusion Lab Achieves 'Ignition': What Does It Mean? Fusion researchers at the U.S. National Ignition Facility created a reaction that made more energy than they put in By Jeff Tollefson,Elizabeth Gibney,Nature magazine

Artificial Intelligence AI Platforms like ChatGPT Are Easy to Use but Also Potentially Dangerous Systems like ChatGPT are enormously entertaining and even mind-bogglingly human-sounding, but they are also unreliable and could create an avalanche of misinformation By Gary Marcus

Sociology The Most Compelling Science Graphics of 2022 From COVID to space exploration, graphics helped tell some the year's most important stories By Amanda Montañez

Pollution E-Waste Could Become a 'Gold Mine' for Rare-Earth Elements Mining electronic waste for rare-earth elements while isolating the remaining toxic chemicals could help solve the global e-waste crisis By Michael Eisenstein

Biochemistry Lab-Made Motors Could Move and Glow in Cells Minuscule motor molecules could emit light as they journey into cells By Rachel Berkowitz

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 328, Issue 1

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The quality of evidence for most women's health [issues] is very, very poor. This is an opportunity to bring women's health into the modern times, using modern technology." Achyuta Nori, doctor at St. George's, University of London, in "First 'Vagina-on-a-Chip' Will Help Researchers Test Drugs."

FROM THE ARCHIVE Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Live Up to Its Hype? Replication problems plague the field of AI, and the goal of general intelligence remains as elusive as ever By John Horgan | December 2020

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