BCC: “AI as a force for planetary and societal good”
written by Daniel Matkovits, director / founder at Interwoven Consulting Sarl-s & BCC Sustainability Group Member
On 12th November, the BCC´s Sustainability Group organised an outstanding, sell-out event exploring ´AI as a force for planetary and societal good.´ The goal was to explore and exchange on the many and varied case examples of where AI is positively impacting on our achieving the so called 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals by 2030.
The evening´s discussions benefited from the expert insight and experience of a panel of distinguished speakers drawn from varying professional backgrounds in Luxembourg, including: Fateh Amroune, AI Factory Lead at LuxInnovation; Irina Neagu Muceli, Senior Cloud and AI Lead for Financial Services and Healthcare at Microsoft in Luxembourg; Sophia Cooper, Head of Training at ADEM, the Grand Duchy´s public employment service; and Laura Piovesan, Director General & Head of Projects Directorate at the European Investment Bank.
The topic and panel were expertly introduced and moderated by Vanessa Müller, partner and head of ESG at EY Luxembourg, also the event´s hosts at EY´s Kirchberg HQ and the generous sponsors of the event.
The speakers explored such questions as: What opportunities and challenges are there in using AI as a force for good in advancing sustainability? How do the panellists see policy, education and innovation intersecting to accelerate AI adoption for sustainability? How do they see other disruptive technologies such as cloud, blockchain and quantum computing working together with AI to enable greener business? How they see AI changing what and how people learn and evolve their skills in Luxembourg, and how does that advance excellence in education and enable more purposeful work?
Further topics discussed included: the emerging sovereign and ethical AI ecosystem in Luxembourg; how AI is impacting highly regulated sectors such as finance and healthcare; how AI is combining with existing skills data to personalise training as a strategy for upskilling Luxembourg´s workforce; and how Europe might differentiate itself as a global player in responsible and sustainable AI development?
The conversations were peppered with tangible examples of how AI is achieving beneficial outcomes for advancing society and protecting the environment, including: how farmers can more efficiently increase crop yields and protect soil health using AI models; how life-enhancing, life-saving new medicines can be developed, approved and brought to market at enhanced speeds; faster and more accurate cancer screening for patients; how banks can use federated machine learning to detect fraud more efficiently without compromising customer privacy etc.
Attendees, numbering around 80 and including a blend of BCC members and EY clients, also had the opportunity to share their perspectives via Q&A and a series of Slido questions capturing audience sentiment on: relative optimism or pessimism towards AI solutions for societal and planetary good (Answers: few people were entirely pessimistic, most were either neutral or cautiously optimistic); whether they believed their organisations were already primed to leverage AI for sustainability (Answers: 20% believed they were already ready; 45% believed they were partially ready; and 35% were not ready); priority challenge areas where AI solutions should be deployed (Answers: Education, Healthcare & Security).
Photography from the evening is available on the BCC web site: https://www.bcc.lu/gallerie/bcc-ai-as-a-force-for-planetary-and-societal-good/ Initial media coverage on Chroincle.lu, BCC Event Explores AI’s Role in Shaping Society and Sustainability
The BCC wishes to extend a big thank you to our Sustainability team of Svetlana Grishankova, Nadia Eatough, Daniel Matkovits, Louise Edworthy and Becca Kellagher, for their ideation, energy and organisational prowess in bringing this excellent evening to fruition.
