How the @WorldFoodProgramme is using AI to fight food insecurity. #aiforgood

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]There are 266 million people facing food insecurity globally and the UN is using AI to help address it. Lack of awareness, infrastructure, resources like time and money, all of these things pose a challenge to how we tackle food insecurity worldwide. But studies show that early warnings to emerging food insecurity situations can not only save lives, but it can lead to cost savings and operational efficiencies as well. So early warnings matter. But to have early warnings, you have to have data and that data has to be evaluated and that's where artificial intelligence comes in.

[00:00:28]Welcome to my series AI for good. I'm Paige and every Friday I tell you something good that's happening in the world of AI so that we can remember [music] it's not all bad. In April, the United Nations World Food Program partnered with google.org and the Gates Foundation to release Hunger Map Live.

[00:00:40]It's a live digital monitoring and intelligence platform that ingest wide-ranging data from over 300 analysts and dozens and dozens of partners worldwide and then uses predictive modeling to help fight food insecurity in over 50 countries. [music] The AI-powered map not only shows where there's food need, but also shows hunger hotspots, which are the top 16 countries that are already dealing with catastrophic hunger. Thanks to the Gates Foundation, they also have a micronutrient intake adequacy layer, which provides a nutritional analysis and helps identify communities that are at risk of hidden hunger, which is caused by an inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals. The Hunger Map aims to answer three critical questions.

[00:01:15]What is the global state of food security? What regions require attention? And what are the factors like a natural disaster or a war that are contributing to food insecurity? WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said, "Without data, the fight for hunger is fought in the dark. This platform changes that combining WFP's on-the-ground insights with critical data to give decision-makers, communities, humanitarian agencies and donors the power to act before hunger costs lives. We're able to track and predict where, how and why hunger is growing, which means we don't just respond to hunger, we get ahead of it.

[00:01:45]That's the power of AI for good. It can sift through data, it can identify patterns and it can provide insights far more quickly than humans can." And the World Food Program is committed to the responsible use of artificial intelligence. So their AI isn't operating in a black box. They prioritize explain-ability and transparency, and they always keep a human in the loop to make sure that the AI isn't drawing conclusions based on biases and then making recommendations that could have world-altering consequences. And that's how AI is helping the United Nations World Food Program stop hunger before it begins.