The potential of artificial intelligence for achieving healthy and sustainable societies

TL;DR

This paper explores how artificial intelligence can contribute to achieving sustainable societies by addressing health, urban sustainability, and climate action, especially in light of recent global crises like COVID-19 and climate change.

Contribution

It extends previous work on AI's role in sustainable development by focusing on three SDGs related to health, cities, and climate, beyond the 2030 targets.

Findings

AI has potential to support health and sustainability goals.

Focus on SDGs 3, 11, and 13 linked to recent crises.

Highlights importance of AI in addressing global challenges.

Abstract

In this chapter we extend earlier work (Vinuesa et al., Nature Communications 11, 2020) on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations (UN) for the 2030 Agenda. The present contribution focuses on three SDGs related to healthy and sustainable societies, i.e. SDG 3 (on good health), SDG 11 (on sustainable cities) and SDG 13 (on climate action). This chapter extends the previous study within those three goals, and goes beyond the 2030 targets. These SDGs are selected because they are closely related to the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, and also to crises like climate change, which constitute important challenges to our society.