With the maturing of AI and multiagent systems research, we have a tremendous opportunity to direct these advances towards addressing complex societal problems. I  focus on the problems of public health and conservation,  and address one key cross-cutting challenge: how to effectively deploy our limited intervention resources in these problem domains. I will present results from work around the globe in using AI for HIV prevention, Maternal and Child care interventions, and COVID modeling, as well as for wildlife conservation. Achieving social impact in these domains often requires methodological advances. To that end, I will highlight key research advances in multiagent reasoning and learning, in particular in, computational game theory, restless bandits and influence maximization in social networks. In pushing this research agenda, our ultimate goal is to facilitate local communities and non-profits to directly benefit from advances in AI tools and techniques.

 

Milind Tambe is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Director of Center for Research in Computation and Society at Harvard University; concurrently, he is also Director "AI for Social Good" at Google Research India. He is a recipient of the IJCAI John McCarthy Award, ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award from AAMAS, AAAI Robert S Engelmore Memorial Lecture award,  INFORMS Wagner prize, Rist Prize of the Military Operations Research Society, Columbus Fellowship Foundation Homeland security award, over 25 best papers or honorable mentions at conferences such as AAMAS, AAAI, IJCAI and meritorious commendations from agencies such as the US Coast Guard and the Los Angeles Airport.  Prof. Tambe is a fellow of AAAI and ACM