Abstract

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its progressively wider impact on many sectors requires an assessment of its effect on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Using a consensus-based expert elicitation process, we find that AI can enable the accomplishment of 134 targets across all the goals, but it may also inhibit 59 targets. However, current research foci overlook important aspects. The fast development of AI needs to be supported by the necessary regulatory insight and oversight for AI-based technologies to enable sustainable development. Failure to do so could result in gaps in transparency, safety, and ethical standards. Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more common in people’s lives. Here, the authors use an expert elicitation method to understand how AI may affect the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Keywords

AccountabilityTransparency (behavior)Sustainable developmentProductivityComputer scienceBusinessRisk analysis (engineering)Engineering ethicsProcess managementPolitical scienceEconomic growthEconomicsEngineeringComputer security

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Publication Info

Year
2020
Type
review
Volume
11
Issue
1
Pages
233-233
Citations
2531
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Ricardo Vinuesa, Hossein Azizpour, Iolanda Leite et al. (2020). The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature Communications , 11 (1) , 233-233. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14108-y

Identifiers

DOI
10.1038/s41467-019-14108-y
PMID
31932590
PMCID
PMC6957485
arXiv
1905.00501

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Data completeness: 84%