AI summit aims to help world's poorest

In the world's wealthiest neighbourhoods, artificial intelligence (AI) systems are starting to steer self-driving cars down the streets, and homeowners are giving orders to their smart voice-controlled speakers. But the AI revolution has yet to offer much help to the 3 billion people globally who live in poverty. That discrepancy lies at the heart of a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on 7–9 June, grandly titled the AI for Good Global Summit. The meeting of United Nations agencies, AI experts, policymakers and industrialists will discuss how AI and robotics might be guided to address humanity's most enduring problems, such as poverty, malnutrition and inequality. Development agencies are buzzing with ideas, although only a few have reached the stage of pilot experiments. But scientists caution that the rise of AI will also bring societal disruption that will be hard to foresee or manage, and that could harm the world's most disadvantaged.