Although most people don't realize it, AI is already helping humanity to meet some growing challenges. It's being used to help us care for the elderly and take care of our children, and that's probably just the beginning. These days, there's plenty of talk about how artificial intelligence (AI) is going to impact the business processes of companies around the globe, but asking the average person about the human toll of artificial intelligence is likely to result in some vague reference to the Terminator franchise or a snarky quip about "our new robot overlords". In reality, though, artificial intelligence is already impacting the human condition in some important ways, even if people don't recognize it yet. Far from being part of some dystopian future story, AI is already being applied to solve some significant looming societal issues.