Artificial intelligence and machine learning, if used meticulously, could help the country achieve the 17 SDGs (sustainable development goals), according to Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman of 5F World and former CEO of Zensar Technologies.

Addressing a panel discussion here on Wednesday, he cited a few examples where AI was used by a non-governmental organisation to bring girls back to school in Rajasthan.

“AI has helped in predicting a girl could probably drop out, helping the organisation in taking up corrective measures. Using data and predictive analytics could help us address such challenges,” he said.

The panel discussion was organised as part of the annual conference on Technology and Society to mark the inauguration of the Raj Reddy Center for Technology and Society at the International Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad) at Gachibowli.

He said that every social activity, that needed to be scaled up, would require data and tools to analyse the data to get actionable insights.

The RCTS, named after the institute’s founder Raj Reddy, aims to bring students, faculty, NGOs and other stakeholders involved in social activities and find tech-based solutions to address the challenges.

“It will focus on a bottom-up and problem-centred approach to solve societal problems using technology,” P J Narayanan, Director of IIIT-H said.

Ramesh Loganathan, Professor Co-Innovation/Outreach at IIIT-H, has said that the RCTS would host a conference every year to take stock of the issues and reorient medium and long term goals.

comment COMMENT NOW