The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are far-reaching and ambitious. They include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, guaranteeing quality education for all children, promoting gender equality, making substantial progress in combating climate change, and ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy—all by 2030.
But the UN’s 2023 update on progress toward the SDGs indicates the world is on track to meet only 15 percent of SDG targets. This means:
- 2.2 billion people lack access to safe water and hygiene,
- 3.5 billion lack access to safely managed sanitation,
- 3.3 billion people live in environments that are highly vulnerable to climate change,
- and about 750 million people are facing hunger.
A new report from QuantumBlack, AI shows the crucial role artificial intelligence (AI) can play in benefiting people and the planet—and how it already has. “By collaborating to find ways to put AI to work at scale for social good, mission-driven organizations, governments, foundations, universities, ecosystems of developers, and businesses can help solve some of the world’s most challenging and intractable problems,” write McKinsey’s Ankit Bisht, Michael Chui, Roger Roberts, and Ashley van Heteren. Check out the report to understand AI’s potential to address these social issues, and dive into more insights on improving lives and protecting the planet.
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