GENEVA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The 2nd AI for Good Global Summit, which kicked off in Geneva Tuesday, is looking for concrete artificial intelligence (AI) projects that can accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the head of the International Telecommunication Union announced (ITU) at the opening ceremony.
In his opening speech, Zhao Houlin, the ITU secretarygeneral, said while the inaugural summit last year sparked an inclusive global dialogue on socially beneficial AI, this year's event will be action-oriented and solution-focused, hoping to spur action and concrete projects.
The three-day summit, organized by ITU, is convening an extensive range of experts and professionals from governments, industry, academia and civil society, who will guide four "breakthrough teams" to launch projects that can be implemented in the coming months.
Each team will be focusing on a specific track involving AI technology in helping push forward the SDGs.
The teams will propose impactful AI strategies able to be enacted in the near term, guided by an expert audience.
The strategies will be evaluated according to feasibility and scalability, potential to address truly global challenges, degree of supporting advocacy, and applicability to market failures beyond the scope of government and industry.
The exercise will also connect AI innovators with public and private-sector decision-makers, building collaboration to take promising strategies forward.
"It's early days, but AI is making its way out of research labs and into our everyday lives," Zhao said. Though big data, as a driving force, could help tackle humanity's greatest challenges, it also has "serious implications for privacy and security", he warned.
While reckoning AI as "a force for good", the ITU chief cautioned that only if the transformative power of AI can be leveraged correctly, it can rapidly accelerate progress on the UN SDGs.
The AI for Good series is the leading UN platform for dialogue on AI.
