Technology is a Two-Edged Sword, AI is No Exception

'Technology is Two Edge Sword', that's how the world has coined the phrase after looking back into the history of human development starting with hunting weapons to nuclear fusion.

Here comes brand new technology, 'AI - Artificial Intelligence'. Humans can make it not just a double-edged but even a double sharp-edged sword. Here, however, I would like to give positive developments that brandish a more positive edge on the sword assuring that AI would be inclusive and keeps society as a fulcrum.

Two developments in AI are worth noting as they are relevant to youth and educational institutes that intend to make their campus and students' SDGs - smart.

Smart Campus Cloud Network (www.sccnhub.com) is a global network that promotes the deployment of digital technologies to achieve SDGs on the university campus. I call it ABCD of 'smart technologies.' A for AI, B for BlockChain, C for Cloud Networking and D for Data Science of which IoT is part. AI is becoming the backbone of all digital technologies. In the pursuit of SDGs, it is now important that universities lead Ais from the front. Worldwide spending on AI business will be 5 times more in 2030 and may run into half a trillion in 2023.AI is penetrating into every business and service. It is spreading fast with quantum jumps. But it is still invisible in terms of how future business would look just like when the internet appeared in the 1990s.

So what are the two major developments that I indicated above?

First, the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) under the auspices of UNESCO set up in Ljubljana, Slovenia is engaged in promoting how AI could be used to implement and accelerate SDGs. This is absolutely amazing development that Universities should ride on. IRCAI has started listing and assessing the potential of hundreds of AI start-ups that are committed to exploring the speeding up of SDGs.

As noted on the UN Foundation site, "Businesses embracing the SDGs await a $12 trillion economic opportunity." Deploying AIforSDGs is expected to serve humankind in all sectors and even in crises like climate change and pandemic.AI is proving to be a pathfinder to attain sustainable development goals. From a business standpoint, this is increasingly important as corporations report on their ESG (environmental, social, governance) and SDG-aligned activities.

The second development is even more important. UNESCO along with IRCAI has drafted 'AI Ethics principles' that are now approved by 193 countries. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said, "The world needs rules for artificial intelligence to benefit humanity. These rules set the first global normative framework while giving States the responsibility to apply it at their level."

Universities now have concrete examples of how AI could find ways to attain SDGs and also how not to use AI for inappropriate purposes. They are better placed to carry out further research and fieldwork to ensure that AI technology becomes only one edge sword. 

 Dr Rajendra Shende, 

Chairman - TERRE Policy Centre,

Former Director UNEP, IIT Alumni  

Coordinating lead author of IPCC.