AI Institute: Planning: AI Institute for Rural Health, Wellness, and Resilience

人工智能（AI）有望在许多方面改善我们的生活，但大多数人工智能创新都集中在沿海城市，远离美国农村的挑战。这使得人工智能技术中心难以研究和设计美国农村地区的独特挑战和机遇，而美国农村地区占美国人口的20%以上。例如，农村地区的人更有可能过量服用阿片类药物、肥胖或吸烟。农村地区未满一岁的婴儿死亡人数比城市地区高出近50%。此外，美国农村地区在获取人工智能所依赖的技术（包括互联网、电脑和智能手机）方面面临着重大挑战。不幸的是，人工智能不仅会让美国农村落后，而且会造成重大危害，这是一个真正的危险：在未来十年内，自动化可能会取代农村地区25%的工作岗位，而且许多农村地区很难进入教育和职业机构，接受新工作的再培训。该项目将计划在中西部建立一个人工智能研究所，致力于创造能够显著改善农村健康、健康和弹性的人工智能技术。解决重大的技术和社会挑战，创造可持续的、合乎道德的、被社会接受的、成功的人工智能应用，将需要一种跨学科的方法，将许多领域的研究紧密结合起来。该项目将围绕五大技术支柱（可信赖的人工智能，可解释的人工智能，以人为本的人工智能，无处不在的人工智能，道德人工智能）和三个主要领域（农村健康，农村健康，农村弹性）的专家聚集在一系列研讨会上，在中西部地区建立合作，为两年后的研究所提案奠定基础。讲习班还将吸引农村社区成员了解他们的需求和挑战。该项目将开始解决研究人工智能以改善农村社区健康、健康和恢复能力的迫切需求，解决这些应用的独特技术挑战，并努力确保美国农村人分享人工智能即将带来的变化的好处，而不是受害者。该项目将研究新的人工智能技术，这些技术将提高人工智能的准确性、安全性、可解释性和可靠性，这将使医疗以外的无数应用受益。该项目还将为希望参与大学研究的社区合作伙伴创建教育模块，形成合作伙伴关系，教育和激励更大的社区了解人工智能的挑战和机遇，以解决美国农村面临的紧迫问题，并在中西部地区发展新的人工智能相关学术合作伙伴关系。这些研讨会将吸引社区成员参与，不仅帮助该项目了解农村公民的需求，还将向公众宣传人工智能在健康、保健和复原力问题上的应用，并将研究人员带入农村社区，亲身体验他们面临的挑战。此外，该项目将致力于在中西部地区以人工智能教育劳动力的形式进行能力建设，并调查人工智能驱动技术的伦理和社会影响，以告知政策制定者如何最好地促进和规范人工智能在美国农村的健康、健康和复原力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to improve our lives in many ways, but most AI innovation is centered in coastal cities, far from the challenges of rural America. This makes it difficult for AI technology hubs to study and design for the distinct challenges and opportunities of rural America, where over 20% of the U.S. population lives. For example, people in rural counties are more likely to overdose on opioids, to be obese, or to smoke. The number of infants who die before reaching 1 year of age is nearly 50% greater in rural areas than in cities. Moreover, rural Americans face significant challenges with access to the technology upon which AI depends, including internet, computers, and smartphones. Unfortunately, there is a real danger that AI will not just leave rural America behind but do significant harm: automation may replace 25% of jobs in rural counties within the next decade, and many rural areas do not have easy access to educational and vocational institutions to re-train for new jobs. This project will plan an AI Institute hosted in the Midwest and committed to creating Artificial Intelligence technologies that significantly improve rural health, wellness, and resiliency. Solving major technical and societal challenges and creating sustainable, ethical, socially accepted, and successful applications of AI will require an interdisciplinary approach that tightly integrates studies across many fields. This project will bring together experts around five major technical pillars (Trustworthy AI, Interpretable AI, Human-Centered AI, Ubiquitous AI, Ethical AI) and three major domains (Rural Health, Rural Wellness, Rural Resiliency) in a series of workshops to build collaborations across the Midwest that will lay the foundation for an Institute proposal after two years. The workshops will also engage rural community members to understand their needs and challenges.This project will begin to address the urgent need to study AI for improving health, wellness and resiliency in rural communities, to address the unique technical challenges of these applications, and to work to ensure that rural Americans share in the benefits—and are not casualties—of the changes that AI is about to usher in. The project will investigate new AI techniques that will improve the accuracy, security, interpretability, and reliability of AI, which will benefit countless applications beyond health. The project will also create education modules for community partners who wish to engage in university research, form partnerships that educate and inspire the greater community on challenges and opportunities of AI to address pressing problems facing rural America, and developing new AI-related academic partnerships across the Midwest. The workshops will engage community members to not only help the project understand the needs of rural citizens, but also to educate the public about AI applied to issues of health, wellness, and resiliency, as well as to bring researchers into rural communities to experience the challenges they face first-hand. Moreover, the project will work towards building capacity in the form of an AI-educated workforce in the Midwest, and investigating the ethical and societal impact of AI-driven technologies to inform policymakers on how best to promote and regulate AI for health, wellness, and resiliency in rural America.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.