Page 11 - Crowdsourcing AI and Machine Learning solutions for SDGs - ITU AI/ML Challenges 2024 Report

Crowdsourcing AI and Machine Learning solutions for SDGs

2 Introduction

The ITU AI/ML Challenge was launched in 2020. The first edition ran on the theme “How
to apply ITU’s ML architecture in 5G networks” and applied to the communication networks
domain (ITU AI/ML in 5G Challenge). ITU is at the forefront of leveraging AI/ML to achieve
SDGs. Through a variety of activities and projects, ITU brings together multiple stakeholders
to brainstorm, innovate, and solve relevant problems across different domains. The ITU AI/ML
Challenge is one of the key initiatives aimed at fostering global collaboration and innovation in
the application of AI/ML to SDGs with an emphasis on communication networks. This challenge
has been instrumental in exploring how AI can be applied to 5G, geospatial technologies,
tinyML, and other areas to drive progress towards the SDGs.

Figure 1: Geographic distribution of participants by country/region from 2020 - 2023

The boundaries and names shown, and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or
acceptance by the United Nations/ITU.
Note: participants from more than 100 countries/regions participated in the Challenge. The top four countries are as
follows: India, United States, China and Nigeria.

Figure 2: Distribution of participants for the challenge

Note: more than 57% of participants are professionals and around 38% are students.

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