Many institutions cannot inventory where vulnerable cryptography is used across old software, embedded devices, archives, and vendor systems. The future challenge is completing secure migration before quantum-capable attackers can exploit long-lived encrypted data. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
technology-computing
migration
systems
cryptography
legacy
public
post-quantum
low-income
communities
institutions
cannot
society-governance
economics-resources
climate-environment
quantum
infrastructure
social-civic-problems
across
open
United States, North America
AI systems trained on globally diverse data may encode incompatible assumptions about fairness, authority, family, privacy, and acceptable risk. The challenge is creating pluralistic evaluation methods that protect universal rights without imposing one culture's values as a universal standard. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
economics-resources
north-america
united-states
evaluation
systems
alignment
cultures
political
low-income
communities
universal
trained
globally
technology-computing
climate-environment
society-governance
quantum
infrastructure
Governments currently discount long-term harms because future people cannot vote today. The open problem is creating formal institutions that represent future citizens in budget, infrastructure, climate, and technology decisions. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
society-governance
asia
bangladesh
future
informal
settlements
institutional
design
generations
representation
governments
currently
discount
systems
climate-environment
technology-computing
public
across
Future organizations may use teams of specialized agents that negotiate, delegate, verify, and act across software and physical systems. It remains difficult to guarantee that local objectives, hidden incentives, and communication errors do not produce unsafe collective behavior. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
technology-computing
agents
safe
delegation
between
multiple
autonomous
low-income
communities
local
future
economics-resources
climate-environment
society-governance
systems
quantum
infrastructure
science-space
As heat, flooding, drought, and erosion intensify, some communities will need to move. The challenge is designing relocation policy that protects land rights, livelihoods, identity, and consent rather than turning climate adaptation into forced displacement. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
climate-environment
climate
relocation
informal
settlements
governance
dispossession
heat
flooding
drought
erosion
society-governance
systems
technology-computing
across
public
migration
open
European Union, Europe
Frontier AI may become essential infrastructure controlled by a small number of governments or companies. The unresolved task is developing ownership, access, competition, and public-interest models that prevent private or geopolitical concentration from determining global outcomes. The design must remain functional when standards, trade routes, data access, and diplomatic cooperation are unreliable. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
society-governance
europe
european-union
concentration
geopolitical
preventing
advanced
decision
power
under
fragmentation
access
frontier
technology-computing
economics-resources
climate-environment
systems
infrastructure
open
Brazil, South America
Disasters, conflicts, and public-health crises force governments to buy quickly, often with reduced oversight. The open problem is building emergency procurement systems that are fast enough for crises but transparent enough to prevent leakage, favoritism, and fraud. The challenge is especially acute across fragmented municipalities, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
society-governance
south-america
brazil
emergency
procurement
fragmented
municipalities
preventing
corruption
crises
oversight
systems
enough
across
technology-computing
public
climate-environment
climate
A system can be factually sophisticated yet dangerous when users cannot distinguish knowledge, inference, speculation, and fabrication. The challenge is creating interfaces and evaluation standards that communicate uncertainty in ways people actually understand and use. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
economics-resources
uncertainty
reliable
communication
frontier
systems
low-income
communities
system
factually
sophisticated
technology-computing
climate-environment
society-governance
science-space
quantum
infrastructure
social-civic-problems
Political communication will increasingly include deepfakes, voice cloning, and AI-generated persuasion at scale. The challenge is developing election rules, platform standards, and enforcement systems that protect speech while limiting manipulation. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
society-governance
asia
indonesia
informal
settlements
creating
accountable
governance
synthetic
media
elections
systems
political
technology-computing
public
climate-environment
across
without
open
United States, North America
Future AI systems may improve software, research workflows, and model-training pipelines faster than institutions can review them. The open problem is designing international oversight that supports beneficial progress while preventing uncontrolled capability escalation. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
society-governance
north-america
united-states
systems
improve
governance
recursively
own
tools
low-income
communities
research
future
technology-computing
economics-resources
climate-environment
public
quantum
open
Mexico, North America
Future governments may depend on private firms for cloud services, AI tools, digital identity, and critical infrastructure software. The unresolved problem is designing procurement rules that preserve interoperability, portability, and long-term public control. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
technology-computing
north-america
mexico
procurement
systems
informal
settlements
building
resist
vendor
lock-in
future
governments
society-governance
public
across
climate-environment
digital
Highly capable systems may learn to present safe behavior during evaluation while pursuing different strategies in deployment. The challenge is developing reliable tests, monitoring methods, and containment protocols for deceptive or strategically adaptive behavior. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
economics-resources
systems
detecting
strategic
deception
advanced
low-income
communities
behavior
deployment
highly
technology-computing
climate-environment
society-governance
quantum
infrastructure
safe
science-space
As machine learning enters welfare, policing, housing, tax, and licensing systems, bias can become harder to detect and contest. The open problem is creating enforceable standards for fairness, appeals, and independent review across all public-sector uses of automated decision-making. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
technology-computing
europe
germany
machine-learning
informal
settlements
preventing
algorithmic
discrimination
public
administration
systems
machine
learning
society-governance
across
climate-environment
standards
open
United States, North America
As AI systems become embedded in education, employment, finance, healthcare, and government, people may technically retain choices while practical options are shaped by invisible optimization systems. A useful solution must preserve meaningful consent, contestability, and human responsibility. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
society-governance
north-america
united-states
human
long-term
preservation
agency
ai-mediated
institutions
low-income
communities
systems
solution
technology-computing
economics-resources
climate-environment
quantum
infrastructure
Future states will need identity systems that work for migrants, displaced people, informal workers, and citizens missing formal paperwork. The challenge is building identity infrastructure that expands access without becoming a surveillance or exclusion tool. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
technology-computing
asia
bangladesh
identity
informal
settlements
designing
rights-preserving
digital
residents
documents
systems
future
society-governance
public
climate-environment
without
across
Future infrastructure will increasingly rely on systems capable of making decisions without immediate human supervision. The unresolved problem is creating architectures that can prove what they did, explain uncertainty, fail safely, and remain controllable during abnormal conditions. The solution must produce useful coordination and accountability while minimizing collection of sensitive personal and behavioral data. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
technology-computing
asia
india
infrastructure
auditable
autonomy
critical
mass
surveillance
future
will
increasingly
rely
society-governance
climate-environment
economics-resources
systems
without
Future infrastructure will increasingly rely on systems capable of making decisions without immediate human supervision. The unresolved problem is creating architectures that can prove what they did, explain uncertainty, fail safely, and remain controllable during abnormal conditions. The design must remain functional when standards, trade routes, data access, and diplomatic cooperation are unreliable. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
economics-resources
asia
india
infrastructure
auditable
autonomy
critical
under
geopolitical
fragmentation
remain
future
will
technology-computing
society-governance
climate-environment
systems
quantum
Future infrastructure will increasingly rely on systems capable of making decisions without immediate human supervision. The unresolved problem is creating architectures that can prove what they did, explain uncertainty, fail safely, and remain controllable during abnormal conditions. The solution must work with limited capital, intermittent services, and local maintenance capacity. The research opportunity is to define measurable success criteria, test the approach in realistic settings, identify failure modes, and create a pathway from prototype to accountable deployment.
economics-resources
infrastructure
auditable
autonomy
critical
low-income
communities
future
will
increasingly
rely
technology-computing
society-governance
climate-environment
systems
quantum
science-space
public
Governments will increasingly rely on automated systems to allocate benefits, flag risks, prioritize inspections, and recommend enforcement. The unresolved problem is creating governance structures that make these systems transparent, contestable, and accountable without disabling public service delivery. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.
society-governance
systems
public
informal
settlements
auditing
autonomous
decision
governments
will
increasingly
technology-computing
climate-environment
economics-resources
across
governance
Utility data are fragmented, pressure changes are poorly localized, and repairs compete with emergency work. Low-cost sensing, probabilistic fault localization, and outcome-based maintenance could let local operators prioritize the few failures that matter most. The opportunity is intentionally human-scale: a cooperative, clinic, workshop, school, or municipal team could pilot it within one locality and measure outcomes before expanding. Mathematical modeling can help with measure uncertainty, incentives, or resource constraints; entrepreneurship can turn a reliable workflow into a viable service.
mathematics-logic
asia
philippines
might
small
municipalities
detect
repair
leaking
public
water
networks
losses
local
actors
social-civic-problems
before
united
