he 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) comes at the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are highly ambitious and apply to all countries, unlike the earlier Millenium Development Goals, which pertained to developing nations. The SDGs aim to leave no one behind.
Yet, as the SDG Summit occurs during the UNGA High-level Week, essential targets contained within each of the 17 Goals, such as once-declining poverty rates or increasing access to electricity and power, are reversing from initial positive trajectories. After modest gains in the last few years, the world is back to the hunger levels of the mid-2000s. UN Secretary-General Guterres said in his April 2023 SDG Progress Report that only 12% of the targets are on track to realization; much worse is that 30% of the SDG targets are in reverse. Guterres starkly noted the "SDGs are disappearing in the rear-view mirror."
The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's unjustified war on Ukraine, climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss are often cited as factors contributing to the reversal of the advancement of the SDGs. The pandemic left many developing nations, unable to vaccinate their citizens or endure the global lockdown, behind financially. Russia's wartime atrocities, such as the recent attacks on Ukrainian grain exports vital to the developing world, and undeniable climate disruption are wreaking havoc on economies and people across the globe.
The 2023 SDG Summit will need to look directly and honestly at what Secretary-General Guterres says is "a moment of truth and reckoning." A frank assessment doesn't have to be followed by defeated acceptance of difficult circumstances. Instead, an opportunity to accelerate SDG action is possible through Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Accelerating SDG Progress Through AI
Governing Council member states of the Community of Democracies (CoD), an intergovernmental coalition of nations which seeks to coordinate action on issues of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, in a 2021 Bucharest Ministerial Declaration recognized the significant role of new technologies to support effective and accountable democratic governance, including resilient recovery from the pandemic.
This has continued as in July 2023, CoD Governing Council member, the United Kingdom, convened as chair the first-ever debate on AI in the UN Security Council. During the discussion, Guterres urged UN member states to join forces and develop AI for good. He pleaded for an "AI that is reliable and safe, and that can end poverty, banish hunger, cure cancer and supercharge climate action [and] an AI that propels us towards the Sustainable Development Goals."
Did AI arrive just in time for the ailing SDGs, after three years of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the planetary climate change crisis, pollution, and biodiversity loss? From its potential to help mitigate climate disruptions to its ability to forecast trade, AI-driven technology is increasingly utilized by the private sector and public authorities to assist in providing services and making informed decisions faster. The rise of smart cities and the Internet of Things (IoT) to increase efficiencies in resource usage, waste management, traffic control, water conservation, and climate hazard warnings are but a few of the many positive services that AI is already improving and will continue to augment. A 2020 study from Nature indicated that AI could enable 154 of the SDG targets, but there is an important caution: it also may inhibit up to 59 of them. AI can enhance progress on the large majority of the SDGs and the decision must be made whether AI is worth utilizing to enable a majority of the targets at the potential expense of some.
That the SDGs are significant is without question, with their critical objective to leave no one behind in eradicating poverty and resolving discrimination and exclusion. This primary principle has to be reaffirmed and regulated to the greatest extent possible in using AI. Cooperation among governments, civil society, the private sector, and academia is crucial to address this challenge and emerging AI questions effectively.
Dealing with both challenges and opportunities in AI is already a decision point for democracy and human rights policymakers. There are and will be countries tempted towards the ill-use of AI against internal opponents and other states. The world has witnessed some of these attempts. Security companies have already reported Chinese and Russian cyber spies utilizing AI to scan for vulnerabilities in other nations’ security posture. Other cyber bad actors have recently co-opted ChatGPT to write destructive malware as well as utilize generative AI for misinformation and disinformation campaigns. These events will only increase in both frequency and impact on democratic institutions, critical infrastructure, and everyday lives of civilians. Ensuring that human rights and democracy are strengthened and not undermined by AI is a critical factor that will define our world today, in 2030, and beyond.
As with challenges in human rights, the use of AI for the good of people within the framework of SDG implementation should be governed by a set of rules to which all UN members can subscribe. These risks can be mitigated by promoting regional and national regulations on the use of AI systems, embedding human rights impact assessments, adopting procurement laws ensuring that AI systems have safeguards to prevent biased and discriminatory outputs, and reassuring public participation in law and policy-making.
AI and sustainable development function together in a fast-evolving technological and social reality. So the SDG Summit in 2023 and the 2024 UN Summit for the Future come at a serendipitous time to discuss the opportunities and risks related to implementing SDGs in the AI era.
AI must be treated as a close ally to help us regain ground in the advancement of the SDGs as we march towards a new, more advanced world in 2030. This alliance will help nations better execute the actions needed to meet the targets of the SDGs more efficiently and implement a more effective approach to sustainability for our planet.
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Leverage AI to Turn SDG Ambitions into Realities
Image via Adobe Stock.
September 21, 2023
Essential targets contained within each of the 17 SDGs are reversing from initial positive trajectories. While AI poses various governance problems, it also has the potential to help us get back on track for the SDGs, writes Community of Democracies Secretary General Thomas Garrett.
T
he 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) comes at the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are highly ambitious and apply to all countries, unlike the earlier Millenium Development Goals, which pertained to developing nations. The SDGs aim to leave no one behind.
Yet, as the SDG Summit occurs during the UNGA High-level Week, essential targets contained within each of the 17 Goals, such as once-declining poverty rates or increasing access to electricity and power, are reversing from initial positive trajectories. After modest gains in the last few years, the world is back to the hunger levels of the mid-2000s. UN Secretary-General Guterres said in his April 2023 SDG Progress Report that only 12% of the targets are on track to realization; much worse is that 30% of the SDG targets are in reverse. Guterres starkly noted the "SDGs are disappearing in the rear-view mirror."
The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's unjustified war on Ukraine, climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss are often cited as factors contributing to the reversal of the advancement of the SDGs. The pandemic left many developing nations, unable to vaccinate their citizens or endure the global lockdown, behind financially. Russia's wartime atrocities, such as the recent attacks on Ukrainian grain exports vital to the developing world, and undeniable climate disruption are wreaking havoc on economies and people across the globe.
The 2023 SDG Summit will need to look directly and honestly at what Secretary-General Guterres says is "a moment of truth and reckoning." A frank assessment doesn't have to be followed by defeated acceptance of difficult circumstances. Instead, an opportunity to accelerate SDG action is possible through Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Accelerating SDG Progress Through AI
Governing Council member states of the Community of Democracies (CoD), an intergovernmental coalition of nations which seeks to coordinate action on issues of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, in a 2021 Bucharest Ministerial Declaration recognized the significant role of new technologies to support effective and accountable democratic governance, including resilient recovery from the pandemic.
This has continued as in July 2023, CoD Governing Council member, the United Kingdom, convened as chair the first-ever debate on AI in the UN Security Council. During the discussion, Guterres urged UN member states to join forces and develop AI for good. He pleaded for an "AI that is reliable and safe, and that can end poverty, banish hunger, cure cancer and supercharge climate action [and] an AI that propels us towards the Sustainable Development Goals."
Did AI arrive just in time for the ailing SDGs, after three years of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the planetary climate change crisis, pollution, and biodiversity loss? From its potential to help mitigate climate disruptions to its ability to forecast trade, AI-driven technology is increasingly utilized by the private sector and public authorities to assist in providing services and making informed decisions faster. The rise of smart cities and the Internet of Things (IoT) to increase efficiencies in resource usage, waste management, traffic control, water conservation, and climate hazard warnings are but a few of the many positive services that AI is already improving and will continue to augment. A 2020 study from Nature indicated that AI could enable 154 of the SDG targets, but there is an important caution: it also may inhibit up to 59 of them. AI can enhance progress on the large majority of the SDGs and the decision must be made whether AI is worth utilizing to enable a majority of the targets at the potential expense of some.
That the SDGs are significant is without question, with their critical objective to leave no one behind in eradicating poverty and resolving discrimination and exclusion. This primary principle has to be reaffirmed and regulated to the greatest extent possible in using AI. Cooperation among governments, civil society, the private sector, and academia is crucial to address this challenge and emerging AI questions effectively.
Dealing with both challenges and opportunities in AI is already a decision point for democracy and human rights policymakers. There are and will be countries tempted towards the ill-use of AI against internal opponents and other states. The world has witnessed some of these attempts. Security companies have already reported Chinese and Russian cyber spies utilizing AI to scan for vulnerabilities in other nations’ security posture. Other cyber bad actors have recently co-opted ChatGPT to write destructive malware as well as utilize generative AI for misinformation and disinformation campaigns. These events will only increase in both frequency and impact on democratic institutions, critical infrastructure, and everyday lives of civilians. Ensuring that human rights and democracy are strengthened and not undermined by AI is a critical factor that will define our world today, in 2030, and beyond.
As with challenges in human rights, the use of AI for the good of people within the framework of SDG implementation should be governed by a set of rules to which all UN members can subscribe. These risks can be mitigated by promoting regional and national regulations on the use of AI systems, embedding human rights impact assessments, adopting procurement laws ensuring that AI systems have safeguards to prevent biased and discriminatory outputs, and reassuring public participation in law and policy-making.
AI and sustainable development function together in a fast-evolving technological and social reality. So the SDG Summit in 2023 and the 2024 UN Summit for the Future come at a serendipitous time to discuss the opportunities and risks related to implementing SDGs in the AI era.
AI must be treated as a close ally to help us regain ground in the advancement of the SDGs as we march towards a new, more advanced world in 2030. This alliance will help nations better execute the actions needed to meet the targets of the SDGs more efficiently and implement a more effective approach to sustainability for our planet.
