Artificial Intelligence in Guiding Nutrition and Health Science Communication

For weeks—for months, actually—all one could hear out of the scientific world, the financial world, and other worlds was speculation about a new kind of technology that would disrupt and revolutionize human progress: artificial intelligence (AI). A technology using computers to perform work previously thought to require intelligence would certainly affect human enterprise from menial tasks to scientific research projects to every conceivable form of communication. The question is: Exactly how will these enterprises be affected? And will the results be positive or negative? For communicators of food and health science, who are trying to translate science for the public and for policymakers, the answers are critical. The authors of this article, extending their decades-long series on public trust, understanding, and communication of science issues, explore the challenges and opportunities that AI is expected to present. As usual, they offer guidance to food and health science communicators in dealing with AI challenges and in seizing those opportunities.