Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development Goals PDF

# Artificial Intelligence ## 10 Al for Sustainable Development Goals **Objectives** - Understand sustainable development and its pillars. - Understand 17 SDGs and role of Al in achieving these goals. - Learn about ethical concerns of Al related to data. ## Sustainable Development In your daily...

# Artificial Intelligence ## 10 Al for Sustainable Development Goals **Objectives** - Understand sustainable development and its pillars. - Understand 17 SDGs and role of Al in achieving these goals. - Learn about ethical concerns of Al related to data. ## Sustainable Development In your daily life, you must have seen poor people struggling to find the daily necessities like food, safe water, healthcare, and shelter for their survival while on the other side, many people who are just above the poverty line are trying to make their ends meet. In short, we can say that all the people on this planet are seeking economic and social development. Sustainable development can be defined as: "The development that satisfies the needs of the present generation without compromising the capacity of future generations, guaranteeing the balance between economic growth, care for the environment and social well-being." We can break the above definition into two parts: - **Part I:** The development that satisfies the needs of the present generation. - **Part II:** The development that will enhance the capability of future generations to meet their own needs. ## Three Pillars of Sustainable Development On the basis of different criteria such as context and level of decision-making, the three elements of sustainable development are as follows: 1. Social 2. Economic 3. Environmental These three elements are interconnected and also known as the pillars of sustainability. These pillars are informally referred to as people, profit and planet. Various topics come under the categories of these three elements: | Economic Pillar | Environmental Pillar | Social Pillar | |---|---|---| ## Role of Artificial Intelligence in Achieving SDGs You have learnt that Artificial Intelligence is a powerful technology which has limitless applications. Now, we will explore how powerful applications of Al, the exploration of satellite imagery, is accessible to almost every business. It is stated by various researchers that Al technology has enough potential to help in lifting people out of poverty, reducing energy consumption and promoting clean, affordable energy. Let us understand about the role of Al technology in achieving SDGs. - **SDG1 (No Poverty):** Al technology is helping a lot in achieving the first goal of sustainable development because poverty-stricken areas can be easily captured or identified through satellite images. Using these images, the government can easily identify the location of poor people and help them through various schemes in lifting out of poverty. - **SDG3 (Good Health and Well-Being):** You know that health is wealth. Nowadays, healthcare industry has adopted Al as a support system because this technology has enough potential to diagnose illness at a very early stage. For example, Radiologists are using Al to locate tumours, anomalies, cancer cells, etc. - **SDG4 (Quality Education):** Using Al, you can learn any subject from anywhere, and at any time across the globe. Al applications also try to eliminate the boundaries of discrimination in the education sector. - **SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy):** Al technology is used for promoting renewable energy use because it has enough potential to optimize energy production and make adjustments according to circumstances and demand. So renewable energy production can be better than ever and the non-renewable sources will eventually be replaced. - **SDG 14 (Life Below Water):** Al technology helps in predicting the spread of invasive species, locating marine litter, monitoring ocean currents, keeping track of dead zones, measuring pollution levels and do much more to conserve marine life. ## Ethical Concerns of Al Related to Data **Possible Bias in Data Collection** In computer science, Garbage In, Garbage Out or GIGO implies that accuracy of output would depend upon the accuracy of input given to the computer. This principle is also applicable to Al systems. Al systems make decisions on the basis of data which is being fed by the programmer at the development stage. If the data fed into it is biased, the Al system is bound to act in a biased way. Let us understand it with the help of an example. Amazon, a big IT giant, developed an Al system for hiring software engineers in 2014. Soon, it was found out that their Al system was biased against women and was causing gender discrimination. This system was following the data of candidates hired over the past 10 years. Since most of the candidates were men, the algorithm also favoured men over women. Ultimately, Amazon was forced to shut down the biased Al recruitment system. **Problem of Inclusion in Al System** The problem of inclusion is found in most of Al systems, showing signs of systematic racism and bias. This happens because the data used for training are already tainted with existing societal biases. For example, facial recognition technology is not so accurate to recognize dark-skinned faces. In this situation, Al systems exhibit racial bias which makes many dark-skinned people feel inferior and excluded. This racial bias towards dark-skinned people is due to lack of diversity in the images and other data used in training the Al systems. Al technology has already revolutionized the way of living of the entire world and is being used to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.