Reconceptualizing poverty in the digital era: AI-enabled mapping and the SDG 1 agenda

In this paper, a conceptual framework for AI-enabled digital poverty mapping is formulated to promote Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1), which aims at eliminating poverty. The framework combines various data sources—satellite imagery, telecom data, household surveys, and administrative data—with the latest AI tools, representation learning, multimodal machine learning, geospatial analysis, and large language models to generate fine-resolution and multidimensional poverty maps and predictive indices. Comprising recent policy changes, such as UNDP programs and the UN Pact of the Future, and case studies of India and Kenya, the framework targets both economic and digital deprivation. It also provides ways of inclusive monitoring of poverty and focusing on ethical protection. The next step to be made in the future is pilot-testing, comparative research, and incorporation of this method into the UN system of monitoring poverty to track it globally and allow fair development.