By Emma Farge
GENEVA (Reuters) – Dozens of robots, including several humanoids, will take center stage at a conference organized by the United Nations technology agency in Switzerland this week to show their potential to help it achieve a series increasingly improbable global goals.
Established in 2015, the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to improve human life and the planet by 2030, but are now widely seen as a long-term goal.
Among the star robots at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) event are those with care skills, such as “Nadine”, a social robot that simulates emotions and “remembers” people – skills he has already put to good use with nursing home residents.
The two-day event will conclude with a panel of robots answering questions from reporters on Friday at the world’s first human-robot press conference.
“The idea is to showcase their capabilities, opportunities and challenges to start a global robotics dialogue in earnest,” said Frederic Werner, strategic engagement manager at ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, before the Geneva event “AI for Good” where up to 5,000 people are expected.
Bots could take off in the next five years in much the same way as the generative artificial intelligence (AI) behind bots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT hit the mainstream this year, he added.
“You have the inflection point where materials science, battery life, network connectivity, AI and machine learning, all of these things will converge to make robotics more accessible than it is. is currently,” he said.
UN agencies are already using AI, such as the World Food Programme’s HungerMap project, which gathers data to identify areas sliding into hunger. It is also developing remote-controlled trucks to deliver emergency relief to dangerous areas.
The World Health Organization is working on a benchmarking system to ensure the accuracy of diagnoses of AI-related diseases.
“The SDGs, let’s say it sadly, are failing and I believe AI can help save them before it’s too late,” ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin said ahead of the conference. July 6 and 7.
ITU brings together 193 countries and more than 900 organizations, including universities and companies like Huawei Technologies and Google. It allocates the world’s radio spectrum and satellite orbits and participates in setting standards for artificial intelligence.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)