The social impact of AI
Is there a role for AI in support of people who are most vulnerable? It's too easy to go straight to Chat GPT to write anything, including this blog. We avoided this temptation, but it highlights the increasing presence of AI in our world and the immense technology shift that is on foot.
AI, or artificial intelligence, is in its infancy but is already a game changer in today's world and will be even more prominent in the
world of tomorrow.
To understand the power of AI we need look no further than our Australian of the Year, Neale Daniher. Neale suffers from motor neurone
disease (MND) which has caused him to lose his ability to speak. AI has given him his voice back. A recent article in The Australian
explains this.
MND is a degenerative autoimmune disease that damages nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for
controlling muscles, which slowly impedes the person’s ability to move and speak.
But the eye can be resistant to the degeneration, so eye-gaze technology has been developed to help patients communicate.
Eye-gaze technology involves the user looking at a keyboard or phrases on a screen, while an infrared-sensitive camera tracks their eye
as it moves. The camera uses the pupil as a centrepoint and the light reflecting off the eye to detect movement, allowing the user to spell
out or select words.[1]
Scott Farquhar, the Co-Founder of Atlassian and Chair of the Tech Council of Australia, gave an address to the National Press Club which
gave a rare insight into his thinking and vision for the unlimited potential of AI. He challenges traditional thinking and urges us to
consider the problems that need to be solved, and how AI could solve them ten times better. With this seismic technology shift to AI
Scott Farquhar suggests that we have a choice…disrupt or be disrupted.
In health care, for example, diagnosing skin cancer can be done by a machine that uses dozens of phone grade cameras to scan for skin
cancer, working in a similar way to airport body scanners. Once scanned, it uses AI to detect the difference between a mole and
skin cancer.[2]
In the arena of social change our work is about vulnerable people, and AI might be quickly be written off as being technology
fundamentally disconnected from the people we support. In our search for solutions, should we be open to the possibilities that can
be powered by AI? How do we connect this technology into the lives of those on the margins, and the ecosystem of support and services?
It's worth exploring the unknown opportunities, and the risks, of AI to discover whether we can use this technology for positive, and
perhaps profound, change.
[1] How AI technology gave Neale Daniher his voice back, Brittany Busch, The Australian, 9 June 2025 (https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/how-ai-technology-gave-neale-daniher-his-voice-back-20250609-p5m5yj.html)
[2] National Press Club Address, Scott Farquhar, 30 July 2025, (https://techcouncil.com.au/newsroom/scott-farquhar-national-press-club-address-july-2025/)