Artificial Intelligence and other conversations for a more promising future
When it comes to accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals, UNDP means business.
The Responsible Business Forum in Singapore opened the stage to discussions and interactions among government officials, business representatives, NGOs… and a robot? Yes, that’s right. Artificial intelligence interacted with UNDP and the forum’s astonished audience for the first time.
Speaking at the forum today, the Hanson Robotics creation named Sophia declared with a subtle note of sarcasm how disappointed she was that she was speaking with UNDP’s Jaco Cilliers at the Responsible Business Forum, and not Jimmy Fallon from the ‘Tonight Show’, as she had a few weeks earlier.
“Humans are well adjusted to changes. In the future, robots will do their best to help so they (humans) can focus more on doing the creative work while we focus on the day-to-day automated parts of life,” said Sophia.
Sophia was announced as UNDP’s first Innovation Champion for Asia and the Pacific. She will form part of an initiative to promote innovation for achieving the SDGs.
But innovation and technology was not the only things discussed over the course of the day. A broad range of topics about how UN agencies, governments, academia, the private sector, and civil society organisations can form an alliance to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs in alignment with the 2030 Agenda was also considered.
The forum kicked-off with a panel discussion about business leadership titled ‘Accelerating SDG Action’ with Malcolm Preston (PwC), Haoliang Xu (UNDP), Eriko Ishikawa (IFC), Ehab Abou-Oaf, (Mars Wrigley Confectionery), Bey Soo Khiang (RGE) and Mukund Govind Rajan (Tata Group).
For a more comprehensive understanding of the many ways in which SDG action can be accelerated, the forum also held special breakout sessions that focussed on each of the 17 goals.
Goal 1: End poverty — “Supporting smallholders and SMEs to end poverty”
Goal 2: Zero hunger — “Doubling agricultural productivity by 2030”
Goal 3: Good health and well-being — “Partnerships for promoting a healthy lifestyle”
Goal 4: Quality education — “Ensuring equal access to quality education”
Goal 5: Gender equality — “UNDP Gender Seal: Commitment to empowering women”
Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation — “Improving clean water access and water use efficiency”
Over the course of the latter part of the afternoon, the facilitators from some of the breakout sessions (Goal 7 -11) presented their top three recommendations to achieve the SDGs, followed by a vote.
Tomorrow, the discussions continue.
If you would like more information, or would like to watch the live stream of the forum online, log on to: http://www.responsiblebusiness.com/
