Artificial Intelligence & the Future

It’s impossible to predict the future. But one thing that we can say with certainty is that artificial intelligence will play an increasingly significant role. 

AI is already so ingrained into our daily lives that there’s no turning back. It delivers the convenience and efficiency that we’ve come to expect.

We’ve been exposed to AI for years, especially from marketplace giants like Amazon and Google. We are no strangers to Amazon’s predictive algorithms giving us product recommendations based on our purchase histories. When we type something into Google search, we expect that its machine learning will finish the phrase for us. 

Besides our dependence on advanced technology in our day-to-day, AI can be a major factor in the future success of organizations. Businesses already embrace AI. Technological innovations keep companies competitive, allowing them to increase their profitability and productivity. Without the speed and scale at which machines collect data, it’s more difficult to gather results to guide decision-making. 

Technological innovations keep companies competitive, allowing them to increase their profitability and productivity.

However, this massive amount of data collection is controversial because it puts privacy and security at risk. There’s often a feeling of being spied on. This is especially true with online and mobile activity. 

There is an inherent trade-off. The more efficient and predictive we want companies to be, the more privacy we must forego. That’s because more data is a good thing for machine learning. The more it gets, the more sophisticated it becomes to anticipate our needs. If data is AI’s fuel, then the concept of privacy becomes more and more endangered.

Therefore, the ethical use of artificial intelligence is essential. If given the choice, people will favor companies that are transparent about how they use personal data. But what happens when they can’t choose? 

At Citibeats, we take this issue very seriously. We make ethics and societal well-being the core of everything we do. We apply the Citibeats platform for positive social impact, such as identifying people’s most critical needs for disaster relief, helping cities respond with effective initiatives for homelessness, and other betterment projects. 

When it comes to citizens’ security and privacy, we adhere to a strict code of ethics: 

• Respect for Privacy
  We extract and analyze data from public and open sources (social networks, blogs, digital news, and websites) or from private sources with permission to use this data.

• Analysis of Aggregated Data
  By working with large amounts of anonymized data and collective opinions, Citibeats never reports on the opinions of specific individuals. Individuals are anonymized and included in collectives as part of global trends.

• Identification of Deviations
  The Citibeats platform identifies discrepancies caused by sociodemographic factors, such as gender, age, etc.

We feel that artificial intelligence introduces limitless possibilities that must be harnessed for good. AI is our future, and it’s up to us to make sure it’s a bright one.