Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most omnipresent emerging technology. It's a computer system that can not only sense their environment, think, learn, but it can also act in response to what they sense and their programmed objectives.
The technology operates on massive amounts of data and learns from the insights, to the point that it can even carry out or assist with normal human activities.
Industries that use AI the most are healthcare, education, marketing, retail and ecommerce, and financial markets and services.
There are ample environmental opportunities to AI, such as the fact that AI can help transform traditional sectors and systems to address things such as climate change, delivering food, water security, protecting biodiversity and bolster human wellbeing.
A recent World Economic Forum study also found that leveraging data and AI digital solutions could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions 4% by 2030.
Dr. Anand S Rao, Global AI Lead, says that when you think about AI and how it can be used for good, you need to understand how you define sustainability first.
“One way is to look at how the UN has defined the sustainable development goals (SDG’S) and the way in which AI can be used to solve those. At the same time, there is more tracking of companies and how companies should be sustainable, so the emphasis is on being Net Zero. So, getting the carbon footprint down is one aspect of sustainability, but if you look at the UN’s SDGs, it’s a much broader set of goals that looks at people followed by species and the sustainability of the other species, and then also the sustainability of the planet.”
