Viewpoint: Can Digitalisation Save Us?

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

By Dirk Messner, Ina Schieferdecker

The power of digital to solve global problems has been too long ignored, say Dirk Messner and Ina Schieferdecker of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).

Global problems threaten human kind: climate change, increasing inequality and erosion of social cohesion are uprooting societies.

A boost of global cooperation is needed, but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres rightly criticises the chaos of the world order and the notion of nationalism.

In this crisis situation, technological change and digitalisation are accelerating, but nobody is paying real attention to the key question: how can digitalisation help to solve the world’s most pressing problems?

Artificial intelligence (AI), automated decision-making and virtual spaces will change the world profoundly and digitalisation will have fundamental impacts on sustainability.

Photo courtesy of Christian Ditaputratama.

Source: SciDev.net (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Technology
Tags
artificial intelligence, climate change