Promoting economic and social development while also protecting the planet is a laudable if not an easily achievable goal.
There are many complex factors at play, many of which are interlinked and can vary across different times, place and economies.
The United Nations has developed a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to ‘promote prosperity while protecting the planet’.
They address many of the most pressing challenges facing humanity in the 21st century.
They include areas such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting education, equality, clean energy, economic growth and dealing with climate change.
The aim is to meet the stated goals by 2030, which is extremely ambitious.
In order to do so, the UN is encouraging the use of a new set of cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools.
The tools, which are being championed by the UK’s national institute for data science and AI the Alan Turing Institute, comprise a system known as Policy Priority Inference (PPI).
It uses agent-based modelling in order to predict what will happen if policymakers plough money into a given project or policy.
AI makes use of governmental data and a number of economic and scientific fields
There is nothing new in computer modelling, of course, but these tools, which have been developed by data scientists, economists and AI experts in London and Mexico, deal with particularly complex scenarios and huge amounts of data.
The software draws on a number of fields including economics, behavioural science and network theory in order to create a virtual government.
It also makes simulated bureaucrats who are able to ‘spend’ pots of money on various projects.
The model makes use of data including real governmental budgets, the historical impact that spending has had in different areas, and even the effectiveness of a country’s legal system and known inefficiencies.
This can help guide policymakers and allow them to anticipate ‘ripple effects’ of the policies they are considering.
PPI is already being tested in Latin America, with the system having been deployed in Mexico and Uruguay.
Authorities in Colombia will be the next to try it out, and the UK’s Department for International Development has expressed an interest in testing the software.
Annabelle Sulmont, public policy project coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Mexico, said: ‘The results of this project show the potential the Policy Priority Inference model has for providing governments with concrete information on how to increase the effectiveness of public spending and accelerate the achievement of development goals.’
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