World Telecom Day to have AI as key theme

AI-based technologies are already being used to help people lead better lives

WORLD Telecommunication Day has been celebrated annually on 17 May since 1969, marking the founding of ITU and the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. It was instituted by the Plenipotentiary Conference in Malaga-Torremolinos in 1973 World Telecommunications Day celebrates the constant evolution of one of the most important factors of our lives: communication. The main goal of World Telecommunications Day (WTD) is to highlight the importance of communication and how information travels across the world. It also aims to increase awareness of how crucial communication is in our lives, and stimulate the development of technologies in the field. The day is celebrated in order to raise awareness of the various advancement in the field of communication technology and how it can be used in the development of society. As all of you know ITU facilitates universal acceptability of international standards and regulations in the field of broadcasting and communications services as well as systems. ITU provides a global forum through which Governments and industry work towards convergence on wide range of issues. Every year ITU announces a theme for telecom fraternity to observe and pursue. One of the key objectives of the World Telecommunications Day is to increase global awareness of the advantages that information and communications technologies have to offer and increase access to ICTs for a greater percentage of the population, especially the lower income groups in developing countries. Since 2006, the World Telecommunication Day carries added significance as 17 May has also been identified by the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society as "World Information Society Day".. The day is now officially called the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) In just three short decades, mobile technology has transformed everyday life for individuals, businesses, governments and societies alike. And, as the first sector to commit to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the mobile industry is working to address some of the world’s biggest challenges. WTISD offers an important opportunity to review the significant progress made to date and to focus on the major milestones ahead. The theme for 2018 WTISD is ‘Enabling the positive use of Artificial Intelligence for All’. AI-based technologies are already emerging as a key component of proactive tools and applications being used to help people lead better lives by improving healthcare, education, finance, agriculture, transportation, and a wide range of other services. In recent years there has been significant progress in AI technology, made possible by tremendous advances in contributing fields, such as Big Data, machine learning, computing power, storage capacity and cloud computing, among others. AI-based technologies are already emerging as a key component of proactive tools and applications being used to help people lead better lives by improving healthcare, education, finance, agriculture, transportation, and a wide range of other services. The 2018 theme will allow ITU Membership and other key stakeholders to focus on the opportunities for how AI can help accelerate the achievement of the SDGs by 2030. WTISD-18 will coincide with the second edition of the Artificial Intelligence for Good Global Summit at the ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Now, much has been achieved in the field of Artificial Intelligence or AI over the past decade. And, it is now clear that AI-based technologies are already being used to help people lead better lives by improving healthcare, education, finance, agriculture, transportation, and a wide range of other services. AI is a technological leap into the advancement of man and his efforts to achieve sustainable economic development. It is machine intelligence (garnered from experience) used to perform human tasks. Many governments including the US Government, China, United Kingdom, India, Singapore, etc., have begun investing in AI for sustainable development. Global companies such as Amazon, Baidu, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Tesla Motors and Nvidia18 have all invested significantly in the area of AI. This means that in the coming years, we should expect to see AI integrated more expeditiously in our homes and work places. AI holds immense potential for increasing productivity, most obviously by helping firms and people use resources more efficiently, and by streamlining the way we interact with large sets of data. In healthcare, data from smartphones and fitness trackers that are analyzed using new machine learning techniques, can improve management of chronic conditions as well as predicting and preventing acute episodes of illness. In the legal sector, AI can be used t to sift court documents and legal records for caserelevant information. Other firms are using similar techniques as part of due diligence. In the area of cyber security, AI offers a way of recognizing unusual patterns of behavior in a network. AI has the potential to promote the socioeconomic development and enhance the quality of life of disadvantaged populations, including those within developing countries. This has been acknowledged by developed countries and other global institutions including the United Nations.