A systematic review of current AI techniques used in the context of the SDGs

This study aims to explore the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the resolution of sustainability challenges, with a specific focus on environmental studies. Given the rapidly evolving nature of this field, there is an urgent need for more frequent and dynamic reviews to keep pace with the innovative applications of AI. Through a systematic analysis of 191 research articles, we classified AI techniques applied in the field of sustainability. Our review found that 65% of the studies applied supervised learning methods, 18% employed unsupervised learning, and 17% utilized reinforcement learning approaches. The review highlights that artificial neural networks (ANN), are the most commonly applied AI techniques in sustainability contexts, accounting for 23% of the reviewed methods. This comprehensive overview of AI techniques identifies key trends and proposes new research avenues to address the complex issue of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).