As a concept, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around since ancient times, yet only coined as a term in the 1950s. Since, much debate has been around the adoption of tools and integration of systems in both the public and private sectors, with lingering questions around laws and regulations when it comes to privacy and data use or misuse.
Few companies have actively invested in using AI to promote social good across various industries. Take healthcare for example, with AI tools assisting in early disease detection, to education, where students can receive personalized learning paths. From an environmental and humanitarian standpoint, AI can help monitor and manage natural resources, and be used to support disaster and relief efforts. One such company invested in this space, is using AI for social good. Meet SocialLab.
We sat with Yasmeen Sakka (YS), Digital Marketing and Social Media Specialist at SocialLab to discuss market needs when it comes to digital solutions and how AI will continue to transform the world in the near future.
BDD: When and why was SocialLab founded?
YS: SocialLab is a multinational Artificial Intelligence (AI) service company and academy, headquartered in Estonia. Specializes in Digital transformation, Data and AI Strategies, and Machine Learning Operations, in addition to research, education and development. SocialLab was founded by Alexsai (CEO) in 2019 as a brand new entity among series of initiatives started back in 2015. The aim is to empower society with advanced technologies and expert knowledge from a human-centric perspective by consolidating data science and AI with social and human sciences for Social Good. Our mission is to be advocates for ethical and innovative AI integration, implementation, and dissemination across business and education.
BDD: The company’s work started more than 10 years ago. How has your line of work transformed in the past decade?
YS: SocialLab work has been derived from multiple entities and companies for almost 12 years. It started to be a Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics company providing solutions to ensure business growth using data analytics and technology. A few years later, the revolution of data with advanced data technologies started and we realized that we need to concentrate on data-driven solutions, yet Social Sciences were in the forefront of our line of work, which led us to focus on and promote social data science initiatives and solutions. In 2018, we started to work on AI research and advanced Statistical Learning or what so called Machine Learning (ML) currently.
With the data, cloud, and ML expertise we gained throughout our work, we created SocialLab as a specialized AI company that combines all our knowledge, tools, and experiences to support building a better society. Currently, SocialLab with its different spectrum of services is transforming many industries for greater good!
BDD: What market needs does the company address?
YS: SocialLab addresses a range of market needs, including digital transformation, data and AI strategies, machine learning operations, and research and development. Our services cater to businesses and organizations seeking to harness the power of AI to drive innovation, enhance efficiency, and achieve positive social impact.
BDD: What differentiates you from other companies working in the tech / AI space?
YS: What sets SocialLab apart from other companies in the tech/AI space is our commitment to a human-centric approach and our focus on social good. We prioritize ethical AI practices, responsible AI development, and transparency in our solutions. Additionally, our interdisciplinary approach, combining data science and AI with social and human sciences, allows us to offer unique insights and solutions that address complex societal challenges.
Another distinction is that at our academy, we are committed to pioneering new collaborative approaches in AI education and application. Through our diverse offerings, ranging from AI courses and specialized industry programs to interdisciplinary studies, we facilitate unique partnerships between different sectors and disciplines. For instance, our datathons and hackathons encourage teamwork to solve pressing global issues, while our idea and innovation labs provide a sandbox for creative AI solution development. Each service is designed not just to impart knowledge, but to foster collaborative innovation and real-world problem-solving in AI.
BDD: What do you consider to be the most pressing social, economic, environmental and developmental issues? And how do your solutions address them?
YS: At SocialLab, we believe that some of the most pressing social, economic, environmental, and developmental issues include healthcare accessibility, media reliability, environmental sustainability, and educational equity. Our solutions are designed to address these challenges by leveraging AI technology to optimize processes, enhance decision-making, and drive positive social change.
BDD: Can you share any best practices or case studies from the different industries that you work with?
YS: We have several case studies highlighting our work across different industries, including healthcare, media, environment, education, and arts. Here are three examples:
- Data for Crisis: A data-drive solution supporting media development. D4C is an open data platform designed to support data journalism practices where journalists, media practitioners, researchers and media outlets can benefit from at once. A place to find, analyze and investigate data to find insights about marginalized communities in times of crisis. The Data for Crisis Initiative was developed by SocialLab in cooperation with Deutsche Welle Akademie and supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It gives interested users access to raw and aggregated data from Social Media on specific topics and specific communities (i.e. migration, pandemic etc.)
- Covid Intelligent Project: The Covid Intelligent Project was created by SocialLab team, it is an interactive dashboard developed to help the world in understanding different insights about the COVID pandemic situation in order to manage, analyze, and monitor public discourse on COVID topics during the pandemic time. Users are able to use the dashboard to build, filter, design or export custom stories and aggregations based on their research. The project used ML and NLP technologies on more than 70 different languages and dialects and almost 1 billion tweets with an open-sourced methodology that’s shared openly to support research articles. This initiative was recognized by many global prizing committees (i.e. XPRIZE) as one of the top AI solutions of 2021 as a response to COVID global pandemic.
- Intelligent Trash Locator: The Intelligent Trash Locator project is designed to optimize the process of solid waste collection using computer vision AI. The project aims to identify and locate abandoned trash in open and wide areas with a fast, reliable and scalable solution running on the edge, allowing the user to get data in real-time while optimizing computation and edge communication with drones. A solution that is designed to be adapted to different case scenarios like water crisis, forest crisis, and other related environmental issues.
BDD: How do you foresee AI transforming the world in the near future?
YS: AI is transforming industries by the use of data and machines. The more industries generate data, the more they can benefit from AI technologies. We think that it is not a choice anymore to adapt to use AI or not, industries and businesses cannot afford not hopping on the train. In some cases, AI is the only way businesses can grow. It is proven that with the computational power available on the market, the availability of data, and the complexity of problems, AI became a hope to save human lives and preserve cultures.
To learn more about SocialLab, visit https://sociallab.ai/ or check them out on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/sociallabai
