AI for Good: How the UN uses AI to advance human rights

For Ari, a six-year-old boy with learning difficulties in Jamaica, artificial intelligence (AI) opened the door to something many children take for granted: reading a book in his own language. Thousands of miles away, gold miners in Ethiopia are being screened more quickly for tuberculosis, while communities around the world are breathing cleaner air thanks to faster detection of methane leaks.Across agencies, the UN is implementing AI tools to help promote peace, security and human rights while spearheading the global conversation around AI governance.By the bookSix-year-old Ari in Jamaica has learning difficulties which make it difficult for him to study, but now AI technology is converting existing textbooks into interactive formats personalised to his needs.“The real impact is what this means for children,” Pia Rebello Britto, UNICEF’s Global Director of Education and Adolescent Development, told UN News. “There are countless more examples like Ari’s, showing what becomes possible when digital learning is designed to reach every child.”For UNICEF, implementing AI means putting the communities it supports at the centre of its technology development process.The agency worked with...