World Solve

Transport systems may be increasingly optimized by private algorithms that control routing, pricing, access, and safety. The unresolved problem is ensuring these systems improve mobility for everyone rather than only for users who can pay most. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Rivers and aquifers shared across borders will become more contested as climate stress increases. The challenge is creating durable institutions for measurement, allocation, dispute resolution, and emergency coordination. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Governments may use health and behavioral data to predict outbreaks, allocate care, or target interventions. The open problem is enabling public-health benefits while preventing discrimination, mission creep, and privacy erosion. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Public systems using legacy cryptography will eventually face long-term exposure as quantum computers improve. The challenge is coordinating migration across ministries, vendors, archives, and critical infrastructure without breaking public services. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Synthetic biology and AI-assisted design may create biological capabilities that are both socially valuable and potentially dangerous. The unresolved problem is building oversight that reduces misuse risk while keeping legitimate research open and productive. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Digitizing land records can improve access while also enabling new forms of fraud, corruption, and system failure. The challenge is designing registry governance that protects ownership claims, customary rights, and dispute resolution over decades. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Public agencies will buy models, datasets, inference services, and automated workflows from vendors whose systems may not be easy to inspect. The unresolved problem is creating contract standards that make public AI procurement auditable, portable, and lawfully contestable. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Future political manipulation may be conducted by large networks of bots, synthetic personas, and microtargeted propaganda. The challenge is detecting and deterring these campaigns without undermining legitimate civic participation. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Private companies may increasingly run water, transport, energy, communication, and housing systems with public consequences. The open problem is designing regulation that ensures reliability, accountability, and public recourse when essential services fail. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

As benefits move online, errors can become opaque and difficult to reverse. The challenge is creating fast, accessible grievance systems that help ordinary people correct eligibility mistakes without requiring legal expertise. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

States may invest in national AI systems for education, law, defense, planning, and public administration. The unresolved problem is ensuring such systems remain bounded by law, reviewable by citizens, and resistant to capture by narrow interests. The challenge is especially acute in informal settlements, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Digital commerce, cloud services, and AI platforms can generate value across borders while escaping clear tax authority. The challenge is creating fair tax rules that smaller states can enforce without being excluded from the digital economy. The challenge is especially acute for low-resource administrations, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

Digital commerce, cloud services, and AI platforms can generate value across borders while escaping clear tax authority. The challenge is creating fair tax rules that smaller states can enforce without being excluded from the digital economy. The challenge is especially acute across fragmented municipalities, where legacy systems, coordination failures, and weak oversight can magnify harm.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.