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| Rather than waiting to respond to a famine after many have already died, the tech firms, including Amazon, "will use the predictive power of data to trigger funding" to take action before it becomes a crisis, the World Bank and UN announced |
Tech giants
Microsoft, Amazon and Google are joining forces with international
organizations to help identify and head off famines in developing nations using
data analysis and artificial intelligence, a new initiative unveiled Sunday.
Rather than
waiting to respond to a famine after many lives already have been lost, the
tech firms "will use the predictive power of data to trigger funding"
to take action before it becomes a crisis, the World Bank and United Nations
announced in a joint statement.
"The
fact that millions of people -- many of them children -- still suffer from
severe malnutrition and famine in the 21st century is a global tragedy,"
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement. "We are
forming an unprecedented global coalition to say, 'no more.'"
Last year
more than 20 million people faced famine conditions in Nigeria, Somalia, South
Sudan and Yemen, while 124 million people currently live in crisis levels of
food insecurity, requiring urgent humanitarian assistance for their survival,
the agencies said. Over half of them live in areas affected by conflict.
The Famine
Action Mechanism (FAM) will provide early warning signs to identify food crises
that could become famines, and trigger pre-arranged funding plans to allow
early intervention.
"If we
can better predict when and where future famines will occur, we can save lives
by responding earlier and more effectively," Microsoft President Brad
Smith said in a statement.
Google,
Microsoft and Amazon Web Services and other technology firms are providing
expertise to develop a suite of analytical models called "Artemis"
that uses AI and machine learning to estimate and forecast worsening food
security crises in real-time. These forecasts will help guide and promote
decision makers to respond earlier.
"Artificial
intelligence and machine learning hold huge promise for forecasting and
detecting early signs of food shortages, like crop failures, droughts, natural
disasters, and conflicts," Smith said.
The FAM
will initially be rolled out in a small group of vulnerable countries building
up to ultimately provide global coverage. On October 13, leaders dedicated to
this initiative will gather as part of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in
Bali, Indonesia to discuss further implementation.
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