Page 55 - AI for Good - Impact Report

AI for Good

Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below

Water

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and
marine resources for sustainable development

SDG 14 faces significant challenges, with 4 out of 19 targets
regressing and only one on track. 356 The ocean is at risk
due to ocean warming, acidification, plastic pollution,
over-fishing, and coastal eutrophication, endangering the
livelihoods of three billion people who rely on the ocean for
sustenance and income. 357 358

AI and SDG 14 Impact
According to a study on the impact of AI on SDG
14, AI could act as an (positive) enabler for 90%
The synergy between AI and SDG 14 is underrepresented, with a of the targets and act as an inhibitor (negative)
limited number of documented UN use cases: 1 use case out of for 30% of the targets. (Nature Communications,
40 in AI for Good: Innovate for Impact, 359 and approximately 40 2020)
use cases out of 408 in the UN Activities on AI. 360 AI can be used Use case 1
to monitor and track the biodiversity underwater, 361 giving scien- Monitoring biodiversity underwater using AI to
give governments and organizations a tool to
tists and governments a better understanding of the risks marine better protect it.
life is facing to protect it. Additionally, AI can be used to develop
new transporting solutions on water inspired by the mobility of
life underwater. 362 AI can be used to improve the monitoring of
ships, which is beneficial given that approximately 80% of goods
are transported by ships and could therefore benefit from new
transportation approaches. 363 Using AI to optimize routes while
considering the environment, could provide important benefits for
the waterways. 364 Similar to SDG 13, AI can be used to provide the link
government with new climate forecasting tools that could better Use case 2
plan for extreme weather events and help communities living in Leveraging AI to develop a new transporting
coastal areas to better prepare. 365 AI can also help robots clean the approach inspired by underwater biodiversity.
plastic from the ocean 366 or support the discovery of oil spills. 367
Although there are numerous compelling use cases for SDG 14, it's
important to acknowledge the potential negative impacts of AI on
this goal. AI's significant water use, as shown in SDG 6, 368 and its
potential to increase the fishing industry’s productivity, can exac-
erbate overfishing, are key concerns. 369 However, AI can also be
employed to monitor and limit overfishing, provided there is inter-
national collaboration to prevent actors from benefiting.
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Key Considerations for Stakeholders Use case 3
Using AI to identify oil spills or leakages early, to
minimize the risks of a damaging oil spill.
• International collaboration: Alignment of good practices
around AI is important to make sure that all actors can
collaborate. 370
• Technology improvement: Reducing energy consumption
is imperative to support the development of SDG 14, hence
technologies with less energy requirements should be prior-
itized. 371
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