Poverty Can Be Predicted From Space - Artificial Intelligence Online

One of the biggest problems in solving poverty worldwide is the scarcity of reliable data in developing countries. Researchers have sought to address this by combining satellite imagery with artificial intelligence to identify impoverished areas from space, the BBC reports. A team from Stanford University trained a computer system and surveyed information in five African countries. Researchers Neal Jean, Marshall Burke, and their colleagues say this method could go a long way in tracking and targeting poverty in specific countries. Burke, an assistant professor of Earth system science at Stanford, says, "The World Bank, which keeps the poverty data, has for a long time considered anyone who is poor to be someone who lives on below 1 a day."