World Solve

The problem of growing mountains of electronic waste continues to affect hundreds of millions of people and undermines progress on multiple Sustainable Development Goals. Existing responses remain fragmented, under-resourced and poorly adapted to local contexts. A strong solution must operate effectively under severe constraints of skilled personnel, infrastructure, electricity and connectivity. It should define clear measurable outcomes, identify possible unintended harms, and demonstrate how the intervention can be sustained by local institutions long after initial funding ends.

Biological data repositories growing in public or private trees raise questions of ownership, access, and longevity. The problem is ensuring that information rooted in living organisms remains under the control of the original subject and does not become harvestable by third parties.

growing risk of mass species extinction remains one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Systems currently in place are inadequate for the scale and complexity of the problem. A successful approach must work where resources are scarcest and demonstrate clear, measurable results. It should identify possible harms, respect local agency, and show how the solution can be maintained and expanded by the communities it is meant to serve.

Current approaches to solutions for providing safe and accessible public transport in rapidly growing secondary cities either underperform under variable field conditions or generate externalities that undermine long-term sustainability and equity. Closing the gap requires coordinated advances in science, systems design and enabling institutions.

As AI tools become more capable of providing real-time answer suggestions, detecting this kind of undisclosed assistance during interviews or exams remains technically difficult. This creates growing concerns about the integrity of remote assessments.

AI-generated images can be crafted to appear as authentic evidence in legal contexts, and forensic tools for reliably detecting this kind of fabrication haven't fully caught up. This creates a growing risk to the integrity of legal proceedings.

Fraudsters can use AI to generate entirely fake but convincing identities, complete with fabricated financial histories, to open accounts and commit fraud at scale. Detecting these synthetic identities before damage occurs remains a growing, unresolved challenge for financial institutions.

Companies increasingly build products using AI models developed by others, but there's no consistent, scalable way to verify those models are safe and reliable before integration. This creates hidden risk throughout the growing AI supply chain.

Specialized AI hardware is improving, but there's still a significant tradeoff between processing power and energy efficiency that hasn't been fully solved. Breaking this tradeoff could dramatically reduce AI's growing environmental footprint.

AI can now generate fake news articles, complete with realistic writing style and structure, faster than fact-checkers can identify and flag them. This growing speed gap threatens public trust in written information generally.

More ships and visitors increase risks of pollution, wildlife disturbance, and accidents in fragile environments. Data-driven tourism management systems and binding guidelines could reduce impact.

Data centers powering cloud services and AI models consume enormous and fast-growing amounts of electricity and water for cooling. Making this growth sustainable rather than simply larger remains a critical unsolved engineering challenge.

Economic shocks and informality push more city dwellers into precarious living, adding pressure on housing and services. Slum-upgrading and urban social-safety-net platforms could mitigate these trends.

Droughts and glacier retreat complicate water allocation for cities, farms, and energy. Basin-level data platforms and negotiated allocation tools can support sustainable management.

Droughts and glacier retreat complicate water allocation for cities, farms, and energy. Basin-level data platforms and negotiated allocation tools can support sustainable management.

Migrants move to cities seeking work but end up in slums with precarious livelihoods and poor services. Slum-upgrading programs linked to livelihood support can break this cycle.

Heavy industry is hard to abate. R&D into low-carbon industrial processes is critical.

Marine life ingests or becomes entangled in waste. Upstream waste reduction and cleanup technologies are needed.

Local livelihoods are squeezed. Preferential access and co-management can support them.

Growing passenger and cargo flows strain outdated airports and limited direct flight routes between African cities, increasing travel time and cost. Investment in regional aviation hubs and open-skies agreements could improve connectivity.