Artificial Intelligence for Advanced Sustainable Development Goals: A 360-Degree Approach

The phenomenon referred to by the phrase “artificial intelligence” has the potential to have both positive and negative impacts on individuals and the environment, and there is now a substantial amount of attention put on the research and assessment of these effects. The United Nations 2015 developed a set of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which included social, economic, and environmental objectives. This chapter introduces two theoretical models that may be used to determine how Artificial intelligence fits in with overall objectives. It argues that the current concentration on AI applications risks leading to disappointment, even as AI, in every sense, is likely to play a crucial role in efforts to accomplish the SDGs. First, it frames the issue within the larger one of aligning international Research & Development activities with the SDGs. This chapter focuses on presenting and discussing up-to-date information on the degrees of alignments and disarray and the potential for alternate configurations to create more precise routes. These are starting to appear from the food business to the energy industry, but AI and the digital world have some catching up to do. Second, it shows how different forms of AI may play different helpful and required roles in achieving Sustainable Development Goals in different contexts, such as cities, regions, and nations.