Cutting-edge digital tools, can help us to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and improve life for all.

But, if the right policies are not put in place, there is a real danger that these so-called “frontier technologies” will exacerbate inequality and destroy quality jobs, the UN is warning.

Areas of particular concern include the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI), which has been developing at a faster rate than expected. It’s often based on poorly understood algorithms produced with in-built bias and prejudice.

These are some of the conclusions of this year’s World Economic and Social Survey, produced by the UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs (DESA).

Conor Lennon from UN News spoke with Doctor Hamid Rashid, Chief of DESA’s Development Research Branch, and started by asking him to give some examples of frontier technologies.