On 5 May, as part of its Lunch & Learn, the ESSEC Philanthropy Chair focused on the theme of artificial intelligence and the challenges and opportunities it poses for philanthropy. During this seminar, Valery Yakubovich, Professor of Management at ESSEC Business School, and Florian Dautil, Impact and partnerships manager at Bayes Impact, were among the speakers.

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing our societies. A set of theories and techniques aimed at the execution by computers and computer programs of cognitive tasks normally performed by humans, AI has already profoundly changed certain sectors: medical diagnostics, financial planning, dating, autonomous vehicles… This first generation of innovations is based on what is sometimes called “narrow AI”, capable of obtaining very good results on a specific task, within a well-defined human framework.

The field of philanthropy is also concerned: the selection of projects and associations to support, the evaluation and measurement of their impact, the targeting of donors and the traceability of donated funds could already rely on artificial intelligence. However, recent progress has made it possible to envisage much more developed forms of artificial intelligence, capable of carrying out all types of tasks autonomously, as well or even better than humans (some people speak of “strong” AI or General AI). In spite of its promises, this “strong” AI raises major ethical questions and gives rise to many fears because it could become out of control for humans. If philanthropy is indeed “man’s love”, it certainly has a role to play in preventing these abuses. Will AI transform philanthropy? How can the sector benefit from it? Are all developments desirable? How can we avoid a misanthropic drift of AI?

With:

– Valery Yakubovich (English-speaking guest), Professor of Management, ESSEC Business School. Co-author of the article “Artificial Intelligence in Human Resources Management: Challenges and a Path Forward” (2019)
– Florian Dautil, Impact and partnerships manager, Bayes Impact. Bayes Impact is a start-up that puts artificial intelligence at the service of the general interest.

Translated from Replay : L’intelligence artificielle – défis et opportunités pour la philanthropie | ESSEC Chair