AI research tackling real-world problems

A rtificial intelligence (AI) is either an existential threat or the best tool in our arsenal to save the world, depending on whom you speak with.

It can also be both.

A 2025 Pew Research poll says that 50% of Americans, for example, are "more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021." "Will AI take over the world?" has become a popular search on Google.

Scientists, too, put forth AI as one of their most urgent concerns. Earlier this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board (SASB), set its "Doomsday Clock" to 85 seconds to midnight, calling for "urgent action to limit nuclear arsenals, create international guidelines on the use of AI, and form multilateral agreements to address global biological threats."

The research group AI Futures Project have also created a doomsday scenario, which they call AI2027.

But it's not all doom-and-gloom. As the AI Future Project's Thomas Larsen explained to the BBC, "smarter-than-human AIs, that are aligned to us (can) end up solving the world's problems, and (have) a really positive effect."

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Simon Stiell explained to The Guardian last year:

"AI is not a ready-made solution, and it carries risks. But it can also be a game-changer. So we now need to blunt its dangerous edges, sharpen its catalytic ones, and put it astutely to work."

So ... can AI "fix" climate change?

If we're looking for problems for AI to fix, climate change is a good candidate. It's widely acknowledged as a "threat multiplier," intensifying environmental degradation, food and water insecurity, and exacerbating poverty, disease, and global conflict.

In the U.S., a record-high 48% of adults anticipate global warming will pose a serious threat to themselves or their way of life. In that same country, one of the top Google searches on AI is related to environmental concerns about its production ⁠– "how much water does AI use." (A lot, it turns out.)

What does the research say?

AI is moving fast, and it's difficult for anything to keep up, from regulatory and legal frameworks to govern it, to documentation on its use. The Association for Competitive Technology puts the adoption speed (of generative AI) in context: "It took nearly five years for the internet ... and a full 12 years for personal computers to achieve comparable penetration."

Taylor & Francis has over 300 journals that focus on AI or incorporate AI methods in various fields, and a growing list of more than 1,800 books that cover the latest developments, applications, and implications of AI across disciplines.

We did a deep dive into Taylor & Francis research published in the past five years to uncover the latest information on how the global issue of climate change has been addressed with the use of AI.

This research was primarily focused on one of four areas:

1. Health care
2. Food production
3. AI and society
4. AI used for climate change mitigation

We highlight eight articles below, and link to hundreds more. With a diversity of topics from crop production to debunking conspiracy theories, we invite you to learn about the brilliant people and the incredible work they're doing to unearth AI's unprecedented influence and impact on our world.