UNITED NATIONS
A new UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) study is considering how artificial intelligence (AI) can support the delivery of public services in the region.
The Artificial Intelligence in the Delivery of Public Services study is the first of its kind and involves collaboration between the UN Secretariat and Google, showcasing examples of how AI can be used in the public sector.
UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (pictured) said Governments in Asia and the Pacific were urgently pursuing innovative means to deliver effective, efficient and fair public services.
“Frontier technologies such as AI hold promise to reimagine how the public sector can better serve sustainable development needs,” Ms Alisjahbana said.
“I look forward to continuing to strengthen the partnership with Google, enabling the countries in the region to better leverage frontier technologies for sustainable development.”
She said that although AI was a widely discussed topic, case studies on how it was applied in the public sector were rare.
“The report aims to fill the gap and features insights as well as context-specific recommendations from deployments of AI in a variety of sectors: health, justice, agriculture, environment, insurance and social welfare,” Ms Alisjahbana said.
“Public–private partnerships will become increasingly important to complement Government initiatives with industry knowledge and expertise.”
She said the report recommended Governments develop frameworks to regulate these partnerships.
The report is one of the outcomes of a Memorandum of Understanding initiated between ESCAP and Google in December 2018 to share good practices and solutions on promoting AI for social good.
Bangkok, 16 October 2019
