AI in Action | February 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to help us solve the greatest challenges of our time from health care, agriculture, and education to transportation, energy, and national security.
When guided by ethics, transparency, and fairness, responsible AI can spark creativity and help usher in a more prosperous and sustainable future.
See how AI is improving our lives, growing our economy, and keeping us safe.
AI in Action
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania used machine learning to uncover an existing medication that saved the life of a patient with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD), a rare disorder with a poor survival rate and limited treatment options. After analyzing 4,000 existing medications, their AI tool helped uncover an existing drug that had never before been used to treat iMCD. Doctors delivered the treatment, and the patient, who was about to enter hospice care, is now almost two years into remission. This is one of many examples of how AI is helping unearth insights about diseases and treatments that can lead to life-saving breakthroughs. Many diseases may appear different—in symptoms, prognosis, or even cause—but they could share some underlying links in the body—such as common genetic mutations or molecular triggers—and can, therefore, be treated with the same drug. AI can be used to identify those underlying links that would likely otherwise go unnoticed.
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Since 2016, the number of satellites in low Earth orbit—about 1,200 miles above the planet—grew from less than 1,000 to around 9,000. With this unprecedented growth of satellites and space debris in low Earth orbit, government and commercial space exploration and satellite-based technology operations need enhanced insights into the movement of objects to avoid potential safety and security threats. LeoLabs, which has the largest and most comprehensive commercial catalog of objects in low Earth orbit, is using AI to process millions of measurements into critical, reliable insights in real time, allowing space operators to identify potential threats in advance. By combining AI and the world’s largest commercial orbital catalog, LeoLabs has increased the visibility of more than 20,000 objects in low Earth orbit and is transforming space operations. LeoLabs is working with NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce (OSC) on the development of the national Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS).
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Heritable Agriculture is leveraging AI to revolutionize plant breeding and biotechnology to create a more resilient and cost-effective food and forestry system. By integrating advanced AI with multi-omics data, predictive breeding techniques, and high-throughput gene editing, the company aims to make plants programmable. Heritable Agriculture’s AI platform analyzes vast datasets to predict which genetic modifications will yield desirable traits in specific environments. This predictive capability enables the development of plant varieties that are not only more productive but also more sustainable, requiring fewer resources and exhibiting greater resilience to environmental challenges. Heritable Agriculture’s approach is designed to enhance crop yields, improve nutritional content, bolster resilience against pathogens and climate stress, and accelerate seed breeding cycles, all while reducing costs. In doing so, Heritable Agriculture’s AI-driven platform holds the potential to significantly contribute to global food security and the creation of a more sustainable agricultural system.
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AI Spotlight
Samsara, a pioneer in transportation industry digitalization, recently introduced Samsara Intelligence, its advanced suite of AI-driven tools designed to help transportation organizations and people who run physical operations keep their job sites safe, increase the efficiency and utilization of their assets, and drive down costs. Using AI, Samsara Intelligence consolidates and analyzes data from across customer operations—including vehicles, equipment, workflows, photos, videos, and integrations with other systems—and helps customers discover insights, automate tasks, and make better decisions for their organizations. Samsara’s AI tools can provide quick answers to complex operational questions, enabling teams to quickly identify vehicle and equipment issues, monitor real-time disruptions, detect safety hazards, understand regulatory requirements, and automate routine tasks. These improvements lead to increased worker safety, reduced operating costs, optimized asset utilization, and fewer administrative burdens.
Samsara’s AI is powered by the world’s largest connected operations data set, which consists of more than 70 billion miles driven, 265 million digitized workflows, and 10 trillion data points processed each year.
About AI for America
AI for America is an initiative to educate the public about how AI is being used to improve lives, grow our economy, and keep us safe. The initiative combines coalition building, advocacy, social media, and traditional media to demonstrate the immense economic and societal benefits of AI. AI for America is funded by TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives. TechNet advances public policies at the federal and state level that make the United States the world leader in innovation. Its diverse membership includes dynamic American businesses ranging from startups to the most iconic companies on the planet. For more information, go to technet.org and AI4America.com.