ITU Secretary-General, Doreen Bogdan-Martin.

The United Nations has unveiled a new initiative aimed at using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce natural disasters and the increasing number of extreme meteorological events.

The Global Initiative on Resilience to Natural Hazards through AI Solutions is led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Universal Postal Union (UPU), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The UN initiative comes on the backdrop of Africa rapidly adopting AI to address some of its critical challenges such as combating climate change, preventing natural disasters, reducing poverty, and disease and addressing food insecurity.

The subject of transforming many sectors using AI was floated at the annual conference of African Finance ministers, who met in March in Zimbabwe to discuss the continent’s development agenda.

It was agreed that Africa should embrace AI to drive socio-economic development across the continent.

Similarly, ITU secretary-general Doreen Bogdan-Martin said the new UN initiative will explore AI use cases, provide expert guidance, and support research, innovation, and standards development amid increasing climate volatility and disaster risks worldwide.

It also aims to create an AI readiness framework to assess and improve national capacities for using AI in disaster management.

“Technical standards are key to ensuring AI is used safely, responsibly and equitably in disaster management – a field where decisions must be made quickly and carefully,” said Bogdan-Martin.

The new plan will consider seismic, hydrometeorological and other natural hazards, as well as compound or cascading events that can result in disasters.

Participation is open to experts in Africa and the rest of the world.

“This reinforces our work to promote AI-based resilience through Early Warnings for All – the groundbreaking push to protect everyone on Earth with timely disaster alerts by 2027,” said Bogdan-Martin.