IEEE Access (Jan 2025)
Artificial Intelligence in Science and Society: The Vision of USERN
- Tommaso Dorigo,
- Gary D. Brown,
- Carlo Casonato,
- Artemi Cerda,
- Joseph Ciarrochi,
- Mauro da Lio,
- Nicole D'Souza,
- Nicolas R. Gauger,
- Steven C. Hayes,
- Stefan G. Hofmann,
- Robert Johansson,
- Marcus Liwicki,
- Fabien Lotte,
- Juan J. Nieto,
- Giulia Olivato,
- Peter Parnes,
- George Perry,
- Alice Plebe,
- Idupulapati M. Rao,
- Nima Rezaei,
- Fredrik Sandin,
- Andrey Ustyuzhanin,
- Giorgio Vallortigara,
- Pietro Vischia,
- Niloufar Yazdanpanah
Affiliations
- Tommaso Dorigo
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
- Gary D. Brown
- ORCiD
- Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
- Carlo Casonato
- ORCiD
- Faculty of Law, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
- Artemi Cerda
- ORCiD
- Soil Erosion and Degradation Research Group, Departament de Geografia, Universitat de Valéncia, Valéncia, Spain
- Joseph Ciarrochi
- ORCiD
- Institute of Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia
- Mauro da Lio
- ORCiD
- Department of Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Trento, Trento, Italy
- Nicole D'Souza
- ORCiD
- Department of Neuroscience, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
- Nicolas R. Gauger
- ORCiD
- Chair for Scientific Computing, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), Kaiserslautern, Germany
- Steven C. Hayes
- ORCiD
- Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
- Stefan G. Hofmann
- ORCiD
- Department of Psychology, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
- Robert Johansson
- ORCiD
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Marcus Liwicki
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
- Fabien Lotte
- ORCiD
- Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
- Juan J. Nieto
- ORCiD
- Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
- Giulia Olivato
- ORCiD
- Faculty of Law, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
- Peter Parnes
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, ArcTech Learning Laboratory, Pervasive and Mobile Computing, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
- George Perry
- ORCiD
- Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
- Alice Plebe
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, U.K.
- Idupulapati M. Rao
- ORCiD
- Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
- Nima Rezaei
- ORCiD
- Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
- Fredrik Sandin
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
- Andrey Ustyuzhanin
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Constructor University, Bremen, Germany
- Giorgio Vallortigara
- ORCiD
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
- Pietro Vischia
- ORCiD
- Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
- Niloufar Yazdanpanah
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3529357
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 13
pp. 15993 – 16054
Abstract
The recent rise in relevance and diffusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based systems and the increasing number and power of applications of AI methods invites a profound reflection on the impact of these innovative systems on scientific research and society at large. The Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), an organization that promotes initiatives to support interdisciplinary science and education across borders and actively works to improve science policy, collects here the vision of its Advisory Board members, together with a selection of AI experts, to summarize how we see developments in this exciting technology impacting science and society in the foreseeable future. In this review, we first attempt to establish clear definitions of intelligence and consciousness, then provide an overview of AI’s state of the art and its applications. A discussion of the implications, opportunities, and liabilities of the diffusion of AI for research in a few representative fields of science follows this. Finally, we address the potential risks of AI to modern society, suggest strategies for mitigating those risks, and present our conclusions and recommendations.
Keywords
