Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-GeneralSide event to the STI Forum - "AI for Good: Accelerating progress towards the SDGs - Perspectives from the Global Summit (15-17 May 2018)"
7 June 2018, UNHQ, USA
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon and welcolme to this event on "AI for Good: Accelerating progress towards the SDGs" which brings together some key stakeholders to share their experiences from the "AI for Good Global Summit" hosted by ITU in Geneva on 15-17 May 2018.
I would like to thank the Mexican goverment for supporting this event and Ambassador Sandoval for joining us.
The AI for Good series is the leading United Nations platform for dialogue on AI. The action-oriented 2018 summit identified practical applications of AI and supporting strategies to improve the quality and sustainability of life on our planet. The summit formulated a number of strategies to ensure trusted, safe and inclusive development of AI technologies and equitable access to their benefits.
The Summit brought together leading minds in AI and humanitarian action, establishing an historic milestone as the first event to launch an inclusive global dialogue on the potential of AI to benefit humanity.
In his opening address to the Summit UN Secretary-General Guterres remarked on how AI is already transforming the world, socially, economically and politically, how it can help improve predictions, prevent crimes and help governments better serve people, but recognized there are serious challenges and ethical issues at stake, in particular for the public worldwide, and a wide range of interests. Attendance at the Summit was oversubscribed with some 800 participants registered from more than 60 countries including many journalists from a wide range of international media such as the BBC, Reuters, Euronews and Wired. The global, multi-lingual coverage reached over 100 million people.
The event also generated record-breaking social media coverage with the Facebook live segment going viral and being viewed by over 3 million people.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Kituyi and WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros also joined the opening.
It's early days, but AI is clearly making its way out of research labs and into our everyday lives. It already shows the potential business applications and economic value for a range of analytics and AI technologies, and at the same time how it could help tackle humanity's greatest challenges.
AI solutions are being developed to help increase crop yields, manage natural disasters, reduce road congestion, and diagnose heart, eye, and blood disorders.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform areas as diverse and critical as education, healthcare, finance, mobility, and energy - and therefore impact every SDG.
At ITU, we are working with our partners, including IBM and the McKinsey Global Institute, to understand and analyze the possible implications of AI in our society.
And as the lead UN agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), ITU is encouraged by the high level of collaboration with our sister UN agencies, the industry, and the civil society and academic community.
Our objective with the AI Summit is to connect AI innovators with public and private sector decision makers so that together they can help develop the strategies to take forward this important development.
The only way we can achieve the SDGs by 2030 is through multistakeholder partnerships. Collaboration, coordination and cooperation is key. We all need to bring our specific competencies to the table, avoid duplication, pool our resources and work to the common good.
Developing countries have the most to gain from AI, but unless we are careful they may also have the most to lose. In order to reap the benefits of AI, vast amounts of data are needed, which are only available through mass digitization – an area where developing countries lag far behind. There can be no mass digitization without universal and affordable access to broadband, which is central to ITU's mission. Let us not forget we still have half the world's population offline!
My colleague Ursula will go through the Summit outcomes in more detail and a comprehensive report of the Summit is available on the ITU website.
I would like to thank our very distinguished panel of speakers who will share their perspectives from the Summit, and we look forward to your feedback to help us in our preparations for next year's summit.
Thank you.