IRCAI, Zindi, and AWS Launch AI for Equity Challenge: Climate Action, Gender, & Health to Develop New Tech Solutions Helping to Address U.N. Sustainable Development Goals
September 24 2024 - 12:15PM
The International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence
(IRCAI), an organization under the auspices of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), data
science platform Zindi, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) today
announced the launch of the AI for Equity Challenge: Climate
Action, Gender, & Health , a six-month global virtual contest
to support researchers, non-profits, and startups applying advanced
cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to create new
solutions that address gender and healthy equity issues exacerbated
by the climate crisis.
The AI for Equity Challenge, hosted on the Zindi
platform, aligns with the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative’s
(ASDI) mission to accelerate sustainability research, innovation,
and collaboration by minimizing the cost and time required to
acquire and analyze large sustainability datasets. ASDI works with
sustainability-focused organizations and government agencies to
host, and deploy key datasets on the AWS Cloud, including weather
observations and forecasts, climate projection data, satellite
imagery, hydrological data, air quality data, and ocean forecast
data.
The challenge, which is a social coding
competition, will focus on building new programing that supports
more equitable futures at the intersection of gender, health and
climate action, targeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3
(Good Health and Well-being), 5 (Gender Equality), and 13 (Climate
Action).
Participants will use data made available
through ASDI, with a preference towards building on AWS AI services
and infrastructure, to develop solutions. The challenge will be
officially launched during the 2024 UN General Assembly and the
UN’s Summit of the Future in New York City, coinciding with Climate
Week NYC.
Davor Orlic, COO at IRCAI “As
artificial intelligence rapidly evolves, it is crucial that we
harness its potential to address real-world challenges. At IRCAI,
our mission is to guide the ethical development of AI technologies,
ensuring they serve the greater good and are inclusive of
marginalized AI communities. This challenge, in collaboration with
AWS and Zindi, is an opportunity to discover and support the most
innovative minds that are using AI and advanced computing to create
impactful solutions for the climate crisis.”
A steering committee made up of members of
NAIXUS, a network of AI and sustainable development research
organizations, being convened through IRCAI will select proposals
that demonstrate the most innovative use of advanced AI
technologies, and the biggest promise for global impact on health
and gender equity, and climate action.
The challenge's objectives will focus on driving
awareness and use of existing ASDI datasets for new
sustainability-focused research and innovation, connecting regional
and global AI communities on sustainability issues, and amplifying
real-world solutions that enable decision-making and action, not
just talk. Throughout the competition, global climate researchers,
nonprofits, and tech startups will leverage technical resources
based on their needs, including high-performance computing (HPC),
cloud compute, AI, generative AI, and machine learning (ML)
services. Selected teams will receive expert guidance in AI
sustainability and responsible AI, along with AWS credits to build
their solutions.
Dave Levy, Vice President of Worldwide
Public Sector, AWS, "Climate change is one of the greatest
threats of our time, and we believe innovation is key to overcoming
it. The AI for Equity Challenge invites innovators to bring forward
their most visionary ideas, and we’ll support them with AWS
resources — whether that’s computing power or advanced cloud
technologies — to turn those ideas into reality. Our goal is to
drive cloud innovation, support sustainability solutions, and make
a meaningful impact on the climate crisis.”
The challenge will proceed in phases, with the
first round of technical proposal submissions closing on November
4, 2024.
Applications for the AI for Equity Challenge:
Climate Action, Gender, & Health are now open. For more details
on challenge applications and eligibility, visit:
https://zindi.africa/ai-equity-challenge.
About IRCAI
The International Research Centre on Artificial
Intelligence (IRCAI) under the auspices of UNESCO, has the
objective to bridge Research, advocacy, capacity-building and
dissemination of information about AI in the interest of the
public. Focused on equity, inclusion, and diversity, it offers
insights, frameworks and tools to help the broader AI community
address development concerns of people worldwide.
About UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the agency of the United Nations
contributing to building peace through international cooperation in
education, the sciences, and culture.
About Zindi
Zindi is the leading professional network for AI
and data science, established with the aim of making data science
and artificial intelligence (AI) skills accessible to all.
With a network of over 70,000 data scientists
registered on the platform, from more than 180 countries around the
world, Zindi helps data practitioners of all levels learn, grow and
access professional opportunities while building real-world
solutions for global organisations.
Media Contact
Paul Kennedy, Chief of Staff Zindi,
paul@zindi.africa
Mihajela Crnko, CCO IRCAI,
mihajela.crnko@ircai.org