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Research project The goal of this project is to explore how anxiety can be taken into account within AI development by studying how AI systems today can be a source of anxiety and how we can alleviate it.
Everyone experiences and copes with anxiety to some degree, and it is a serious problem for many, with anxiety disorders being the most common type of mental health disorder.
Today AI systems are capable of accounting for many different factors when optimizing for efficiency, but without taking anxiety into account this leads to an increase in the anxiety it causes. For example, when planning a trip we take our anxiety into account, trying to estimate uncertainties, consequences, values, and even the confidence we have in ourselves. An AI system aiding us in the same example might suggest the fastest or cheapest route, which often entails more anxiety.
The project also aims to investigate how AI research can contribute to a better understanding of anxiety in society, with the development of more advanced and accurate models of anxiety we can explore anxiety's role in social simulation.
