Page 9 - Crowdsourcing AI and Machine Learning solutions for SDGs - ITU AI/ML Challenges 2024 Report

Crowdsourcing AI and Machine Learning solutions for SDGs

1 Executive Summary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a dominant technology and impacts every aspect of society. As
AI continues to evolve, AI/ML-enabled applications and services integrated with the future of
communication networks would drive innovation and related standards. ITU is at the forefront
of exploring how best to apply AI/ML through various initiatives and projects to advance the
achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). ITU AI/ML competitions, bring together
AI/ML stakeholders to brainstorm, innovate and solve relevant problems in telecommunication
networks, Geospatial challenges, tinyML use cases, etc. Building on its standards community,
ITU has been conducting global ITU AI/ML Challenges mapped to several areas impacting
SDGs.

The ITU AI/ML in 5G Challenge aims to solve real-world communication network
problems using AI and ML, focusing on the development and optimization of 5G and
emerging 6G technologies. Participants engage in technical webinars, mentoring, and
hands-on sessions, creating and deploying ML models, and applying ITU standards,
thereby gaining global recognition for their innovative solutions.

The GeoAI Challenge applies AI/ML to address real-world geospatial problems
related to the UN SDGs. Participants gain practical experience by tackling issues such
as environmental monitoring, urban planning, and disaster response, promoting
innovative solutions for sustainable development, and offering prizes, recognition,
and certificates to top performers.

The tinyML Challenge explores applying machine learning to tiny devices and
embedded systems to build cost-effective, low-power, reliable, and easy-to-install,
solutions by leveraging tinyML technology.

The ITU AI/ML Challenge offers carefully curated problem statements, a mix of real-world and
simulated data, technical webinars, mentoring, and hands-on sessions. Teams participating in
the Challenge enable, create, train, and deploy ML models for different domains. This enables
participants to not only showcase their talent, test their concepts on real data and real-world
problems, and compete for global recognition including prize money and certificates, but also
enter the world of ITU standards by mapping their solutions to our specifications.

The ITU AI/ML Challenge has had profound impacts across multiple dimensions.

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