The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges facing our world today. Its impacts are far-reaching, affecting every aspect of our lives, from public health and food security to economic stability and social justice. What’s more, the effects of climate change disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable populations, exacerbating existing inequalities across gender, race and socioeconomic status.
But we have the power to create change. By harnessing the transformative potential of ai, we can develop innovative solutions to address the intersectional challenges at the heart of the climate crisis. International Research Centre on artificial intelligence (IRCAI), Othersand amazon Web Services (AWS) are proud to announce the launch of the “ai for Equity Challenge: Climate Action, Gender, and Health,” a global virtual competition aimed at empowering organizations to use advanced ai and cloud technologies to generate real-world impact with a focus on benefiting vulnerable populations around the world.
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Alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 5and 13Focused on health and wellbeing, gender equality, and climate action, respectively, this challenge seeks to uncover the most promising ai-powered solutions that address the complex problems of climate change, gender equity, and public health. By bringing together a diverse global community of innovators, we hope to accelerate the development of equitable, sustainable, and impactful ai applications for the common good.
“As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves, it is critical that we harness its potential to address real-world challenges. At IRCAI, our mission is to guide the ethical development of ai technologies, ensuring they serve the common good and are inclusive of marginalized ai communities. This challenge, in collaboration with AWS, is an opportunity to discover and support the most innovative minds who are using ai and edge computing to create impactful solutions to the climate crisis.”
– Davor Orlic, IRCAI COO.
The competition will run in two phases, with both ideators and solution creators participating. In the first phase, organizations are invited to submit technical proposals outlining the specific challenges at the intersection of climate action, gender equity, and health that they aim to address through the use of ai and cloud technologies. A steering committee convened by IRCAI will evaluate these proposals based on criteria such as innovation, feasibility, and potential for global impact. The competition will be evaluated and advised in collaboration with NAIXUS, a network of research organizations in ai and sustainable development.
The two winning proposals from the first phase will move on to the second round, where they will serve as the basis for two ai challenges hosted on the Zindi platform. During this phase, developers and data scientists from around the world will compete to create the most successful ai-based solutions to address the real-world problems identified by the winners of the first round.
<span style="font-family: 'amazon Ember’,sans-serif;color: #16191f”>Timeline of the ai challenge for equity
The winning ai solutions from the second round challenges will be owned entirely by the organizations that submitted the original winning proposals, who will also receive $15,000 in AWS credits and technical support from AWS and IRCAI to help implement their solutions. Additionally, the first-place teams in each of the two final Zindi challenges will receive cash prizes of $6,000, $4,000, and $2,500 for first, second, and third place, respectively.
But the real reward goes beyond the prizes. By participating in this challenge, both organizations and individuals will have the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Through the power of ai and advanced cloud computing, we can develop innovative solutions that empower women, improve public health outcomes, and drive sustainable progress on the climate action front.
During the hackathon, participants will have access to a wealth of resources, including mentorship from industry experts, training materials, and AWS cloud computing resources. amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI)A collaboration between AWS and leading scientific organizations, it provides a catalog of more than 200 datasets spanning climate projections, satellite imagery, air quality data, and more, enabling participants to build robust, data-driven solutions.
“Climate change is one of the greatest threats of our time, and we believe innovation is key to overcoming it. The ai for Equity Challenge invites innovators to submit their most visionary ideas, and we will support them with AWS resources—whether computing power or advanced cloud technologies—to turn those ideas into reality. Our goal is to drive cloud innovation, support sustainability solutions, and make a meaningful impact on the climate crisis.”
– Dave Levy, Vice President, AWS Worldwide Public Sector
This initiative is made possible with support from ASDI, which provides researchers, scientists, and innovators with access to a wealth of publicly available datasets on AWS to advance their sustainability-focused work. The ai for Equity: Climate Action, Gender, and Health Challenge is open for submissions from September 23 to November 4, 2024. The two winning proposals from the first round will be announced on December 2, 2024, and the final winners of the ai Challenge will be revealed on February 12, 2025.
Don't miss the opportunity to be part of the solution. Visit ai-equity-challenge” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>https://zindi.africa/ai-equity-challenge
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Visit ai-equity-challenge”>http://zindi.africa/ai-equity-challenge to learn more and get involved.
This competition is organized in collaboration with:
About the author
Joe Fontaine is the Product Marketing Manager for AWS ai Builder programs. He is passionate about making machine learning more accessible to everyone through hands-on educational experiences. Outside of work, he enjoys freeride mountain biking, aerial cinematography, and exploring the outdoors with his family.
