Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
The purpose of the Community-Aligned AI Benchmarks initiative is to help communities better articulate their needs and aspirations to technology researchers and builders to ensure that AI systems are designed to meet public priorities. Aspen Digital chose SDG 2: Zero Hunger as an under-explored pilot issue area and then ran a global survey designed to understand the most significant challenges facing food security and to identify the strategies experts consider most effective to address them. The findings represent perspectives from over 100 participants from around the world with experience in nutrition, policy advocacy, education, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy representing work in 20 out of the 22 United Nations (UN) Statistical Division geographical regions.
Food security is a pressing global challenge that has only become more urgent in the last year, with an estimated 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe food insecurity, and many countries dramatically decreasing their commitments to international aid. Unfortunately, existing efforts to explicitly align AI research with food security priorities remain limited—only 3.6% of AI-for-SDG projects address the ‘Zero Hunger’ goal despite its global importance. Most AI for food security projects focus on food production, but our survey results reveal that many of the breakthroughs that could unlock substantial progress on world hunger and malnutrition may intervene on other aspects of food security. While Production and Resource Management is a high-priority challenge, survey participants converged around two related governance-focused strategies.
The highest priority course of action based on these findings is: Strengthen transparency, accountability, and participatory decision-making, especially in government food system administration and land governance.
