IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2021 - 20

Special Issue Introduction

the industry (initiatives on AI ethical codes such as
those of Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Intel). In essence,
these initiatives aim to identify the potential benefits
and risks, and issue recommendations on the principles to be followed by the different actors involved.
However, this ethical debate is taking place
mostly in high-income countries so that much of it
is of little relevance to the more than 700 million
people living in extreme poverty. Reciprocally, ethical questions that greatly affect marginalized populations are not treated with the importance they
deserve in this debate.
Universal-ethics considerations gave rise to the
United Nations (UN) Agenda for sustainable development, to be reached by 2030. Eradicating poverty is
a central objective of the sustainable development
goals (SDGs), and though the emphasis is on lowand middle-income countries (LMICs), they also
target the growing pockets of underdevelopment in
high-income countries. There is a growing interest in
the role that AI can play in achieving these objectives on the part of international organizations, such
as UN Global Pulse [12], UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) [13], the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Global Innovation Centre [14], the World Wide Web Foundation
[15], the International Telecommunications Union
[16], and even the World Economic Forum [17].
A wide view of ethics focuses not only on risk
mitigation but also on potentialities, and from such
a view arises the ethical imperative to harness AI
technologies to the benefit of humanity to improve
quality of life for all rather than contributing to perpetuating systemic injustices. To this end, more
multi- and interdisciplinary R&D in the potential of
AI to contribute to the SDGs is urgently needed; a
practical research that goes beyond cataloging risks
and potentialities, in part as a counterweight to the
heavily plugged corporate sector view on AI ethics,
which is often little more than " ethicswash " for a program in which the effect of AI/S development and
deployment will most likely be to increase inequality
[18], [19].
First, there is a need to study the current panorama of AI applications in sectors crucial to the UN
SDGs, to share the lessons learned in applying them,
to identify strengths and weaknesses, and to document and disseminate the development and deployment of the most significant innovative applications.
Attention should be drawn to the idiosyncrasy of

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each application context (cultural, climatic, environmental, organizational, infrastructural, socioeconomic, etc.) and the particular impact AI-based
technological innovation can have on each.
Second, progress in standards and R&D methodological and technical tools that guide the development of ethical AI is also essential. Ethical AI should
be respectful of and even actively committed to fundamental human rights and of the particular values
of the culture where it is implemented and should
take into account the idiosyncrasy of each context.
Additionally, these methodological and technical
tools could ensure compliance with regulations,
laws, and policies, particularly those focusing on
protecting and empowering the most vulnerable and
marginalized. Although manuals of good business
practices are also necessary, in the academic field,
there is a need for independent and scientifically rigorous research, with an empirical dimension which,
so far, is mostly lacking. Academic research, private
sector self-regulation, and legislation are necessary
and complementary actions.
In this special issue, we aim to illustrate this
R&D path that would confer a decisive role to AI in
achieving the SDGs, by presenting a set of articles
mainly selected from the submissions to the workshop " Advancing Toward the SDGs Artificial Intelligence for a Fair, Just, and Equitable World, " held
in conjunction with the " European Conference on
Artificial Intelligence " in September 2020. The spirit
of the 2030 Agenda, as reflected in [20], is expressed
as an " inescapable transformation, " that is, a profound change in the systems and structures in which
all organizations and individuals in society must participate. In the face of the dystopian futures of the
advances of AI augur, there is the option of an AI
that catalyzes that necessary transformation toward
a fair, just, and equitable world.
This special issue first presents " AI4Eq: For a True
Global Village not for Global Pillage, " by Manjarrés
et al. as a call for action on researchers to participate
and promote an interdisciplinary research field " AI
for Equity " dealing with the distinctive challenges
posed by AI technologies in the context of a human
rights-based approach to sustainable development.
The authors show how AI4Eq occupies a particular
area within ICT4D due to the very significant ethical
and philosophical problems and dilemmas that it
gives rise to, and to the fact that many of the risks
associated with ICT, in general, are magnified in the

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2021
