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Call for the Special Track on AI for Social Impact

AAAI-22 will feature a special track on Artificial Intelligence for Social Impact (AISI). The
track recognizes that high-quality research on social impact domains often leads to papers
that differ from traditional AAAI submissions along multiple dimensions. These are
motivated by the following issues:

Data collection may be difficult and may require innovative methods and validations,
for instance, to address large-scale data gathering in the field, eliminate bias and ensure
fairness;
Problem modeling is a time-intensive activity that requires significant collaborations
with domain experts and needs to balance a variety of tradeoffs in decision making;
Social impact may be realized through time-consuming field studies that typically
compare a baseline with the application of novel algorithms in the real world, and the
experimental design can be challenging and the evaluation may be multifaceted.

The goal of this track at AAAI-22 is to highlight these technical challenges and
opportunities and to showcase the social benefits of artificial intelligence.

This page outlines the specific track focus of the Special Track on AI for Social Impact
(AISI), as well as review criteria unique to this track. For complete information about the
following topics pertaining to all technical tracks and focus areas, including AISI,
especially with regard to submission and deadline information, please refer to the main
AAAI-22 Call for Papers.

Submissions to this special track will follow the regular AAAI technical paper submission
procedure but the authors need to select the AISI special track. There will be no transfer
of papers between the AAAI-22 main track and the AISI special track; therefore, authors
will need to decide to which track they want to submit their paper (note that only this
special track offers a set of AISI keywords). Papers submitted to this track will be evaluated
using the following criteria which are different from the criteria for the main track. For
acceptance into this track, typically we would expect papers to have a high score on some
(but not necessarily all) of these criteria. As a reference, papers accepted for AAAI-21 AISI
special track can be found here (starting from page 121).

Significance of the problem

4. The social impact problem considered by this paper is significant and has not been
adequately addressed by the AI community.
3. This paper represents a new take on a significant social impact problem that has been
considered in the AI community before
2. The social impact problem considered by this paper has some significance and this
paper represents a new take on the problem
1. This paper’s contribution was elsewhere: it follows up on an existing problem
formulation or introduces a new problem with limited immediate potential for social
impact

Engagement with literature

4. Shows an excellent understanding of other literature on the problem, including that

outside computer science
3. Shows a strong understanding of other literature on the problem, perhaps focusing on
various subtopics or on the CS literature
2. Shows a moderate understanding of other literature on the topic, but does not engage
in depth
1. Does not engage sufficiently with other literature on the topic

Novelty of approach

4. Introduces a new model, data gathering technique, algorithm, and/or data analysis
technique
3. Substantially improves upon an existing model, data gathering technique, algorithm,
and/or data analysis technique
2. Makes a moderate improvement to an existing model, data gathering technique,
algorithm, and/or data analysis technique
1. This paper’s contribution was elsewhere: it employs existing models, data gathering
techniques, algorithms, and/or data analysis techniques (e.g., the paper presents a new
experimental design and evaluation procedure).

Justification of approach

4. Thoroughly and convincingly justifies the approach taken, explaining strengths and
weaknesses as compared to other alternatives
3. The justification of the approach is convincing overall, but could have been more
thorough and/or alternatives could have been considered in more detail
2. The justification of the approach is relatively convincing, but has weaknesses
1. The justification of the approach is flawed and/or not convincing

Quality of evaluation

4. Evaluation was exemplary: data described the real world and was analyzed thoroughly
3. Evaluation was convincing: datasets were realistic; analysis was solid
2. Evaluation was adequate, but had significant flaws: datasets were unrealistic and/or
analysis was insufficient
1. Evaluation was unconvincing

Facilitation of follow-up work

4. Excellent facilitation of follow-up work: open-source code; public datasets; and a very
clear description of how to use these elements in practice
3. Strong facilitation of follow-up work: some elements are shared publicly (data, code, or
a running system) and little effort would be required to replicate the results or apply them
to a new domain
2. Adequate facilitation of follow-up work: moderate effort would be required to replicate
the results or apply them to a new domain
1. Weak facilitation of follow-up work: considerable effort would be required to replicate
the results or apply them to a new domain

Scope and promise for social impact

4. Likelihood of social impact is extremely high: the paper’s ideas are already being used in
practice or could be immediately
3. Likelihood of social impact is high: relatively little effort would be required to put this
paper’s ideas into practice, at least for a pilot study
2. Likelihood of social impact is moderate: this paper gets us closer to its goal, but
considerably more work would be required before the paper’s ideas could be
implemented in practice
1. Likelihood of social impact is low: the ideas proposed in this paper are unlikely to make
a significant impact on the proposed problem

Submission Limit

AAAI-22 is enforcing a strict submission limit. Each individual author is limited to no more
than a combined limit of 10 submissions to the AAAI-22 main track and AISI track, and
authors may not be added to papers following submission (see the main AAAI-22 Call for
Papers for policies about author changes).

Questions and Suggestions

Concerning author instructions and conference registration, write to aaai22@aaai.org.

Concerning suggestions for the program and other inquiries, write to the AAAI-22 AISI
Program Cochairs:

Fei Fang (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)

Sriraam Natarajan (University of Texas at Dallas)

 
AI for Social Impact Keywords
AISI: Agriculture/Food
AISI: Assistive Technology for Well-being
AISI: Computational Social Science
AISI: Education
AISI: Economic/Financial
AISI: Energy
AISI: Environmental Sustainability
AISI: Health and Well-being
AISI: Humanities
AISI: Low and Middle-Income Countries
 AISI: Mobility/Transportation
AISI: Natural Sciences
AISI: Networks and Social Networks
AISI: Philosophical and Ethical Issues
AISI: Security and Privacy
AISI: Social Development
AISI: Social Welfare, Justice, Fairness and Equality
AISI: Urban Planning
AISI: Underserved Communities
AISI: Web
AISI: Other Social Impact

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