Xtend.AI was founded with the mission of using AI to solve global challenges in various domains.  Our goal is to extend human capabilities with AI,  to augment human intelligence and expertise, to allow us to solve these challenges with greater ease, speed and efficiency.

The grand challenges facing the world today are well enumerated in the 17  “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDG)”  of the United Nations.  These are a call to action to “end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.”  The UN has set an an aggressive timeline of 2030 to achieve these goals. The first of these targets, for example, is: “by 2030, to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day”. .

The UN recognizes the critical role of science, technology and Innovation in the achievement of these ambitious targets.  These advances include the rapid growth in computing power,  global internet connectivity, the internet of things (IoT), big data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Of these none is expected to have greater impact than AI and machine learning (ML). A recent study by McKinsey & Co.  estimated that AI could account for over 16% or $13 trillion of global GDP by 2030.   In addition, the McKinsey study compiled a list of actual and potential AI/ML use cases and found they can help address all of the 17 UN’s SDGs, as indicated in the chart below.

Of these,  the largest number of AI/ML use cases are in the good health and well-being  category.  This is due to in large part to the success of AI deep learning models in computer vision for medical diagnostics,  as well as disease prevention and prediction using data analytics. For example, AI algorithms can now detect diseases such as lung cancer, breast cancer, melanoma,  diabetic retinopathy and TB from medical images, at accuracy levels comparable or better than human experts.  AI-enabled wearable devices can now detect early signs of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes and help prevent these diseases from progressing further.

Xtend.AI aims to harness the power of AI to tackle many of these challenges, in health, energy efficiency, economic growth and other domains.