How Could Future AI Help Tackle Global Complex Problems?

Abstract

How does AI need to evolve in order to better support more effective decision-making in managing the many complex problems we face at every scale, from global climate change, collapsing ecosystems, international conflicts and extremism, through to all the dimensions of public policy, economics, and governance that affect human well-being? Research in complex decision-making at an individual human level (understanding of what constitutes more, and less, effective decision-making behaviors, and in particular the many pathways to failures in dealing with complex problems), informs a discussion about the potential for AI to aid in mitigating those failures and enabling a more robust and adaptive (and therefore more effective) decision-making framework, calling for AI to move well-beyond the current envelope of competencies.