From SDGs to HDGs: Hybrid Development Goals for a ProSocial AI Future

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Science Summit 2026

From SDGs to HDGs: Hybrid Development Goals for a ProSocial AI Future

• Date: 24 September 2026
• Time: 7:00 – 8:45PM (GMT+8: Kuala Lumpur, Singapore)
• Mode: Online
• Registration Link: https://event.sciencesummitnyc.org/list-of-sessions/detail/387

The Sustainable Development Goals created a shared language for global development. The world beyond 2030 will be shaped by conditions they only partly anticipated: artificial intelligence embedded in daily life, climate disruption, fragile trust, cognitive outsourcing, data-driven inequality and new forms of human-machine dependency. Development is becoming hybrid.

This session proposes Hybrid Development Goals as a contribution to the post-2030 agenda. HDGs would not replace the SDGs. They would extend them for a world where human, social, ecological and artificial systems increasingly interact.

How can AI strengthen human agency, community resilience and planetary wellbeing rather than narrow them? The session will introduce ProSocial AI as the design logic for this transition, describing systems tailored, trained, tested and targeted to bring out the best in and for people and planet. It frames Hybrid Intelligence as the complementarity of natural and artificial intelligences — natural intelligence includes the human capacity to aspire, feel, think, sense, relate, decide and act, while artificial intelligence extends analysis, simulation, translation, personalisation and coordination. The opportunity lies in combining both without weakening dignity, responsibility or judgment.

This discussion will dive into why development goals must evolve beyond 2030, how AI can extend rather than replace human agency, and what a more resilient and equitable framework would require.

Join our speakers:

• Amit Basu, Founder and CEO of Cognativ
• Assoc. Prof. Cornelia C. Walther, Associate Professor at the Sunway Institute for Global Strategy and Competitiveness, Sunway University.
• Sofiya Opatska, Vice Rector for Strategic Development at Ukrainian Catholic University
• Revati Phalkey, Director of the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health
• Prof. Amy Kenworthy, Professor at Bond University
• Prof. Mahendhiran Sanggaran Nair, Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Sustainability) at Sunway University

About Science Summit

Science Summit addresses the critical role of science, technology, and innovation in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, providing evidence for policy, and supporting sustainable and inclusive development worldwide.

This year's Science Summit 2026, held alongside the United 81^st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), focuses on how science, technology, and innovation can drive regeneration — restoring ecosystems, rebuilding equity, and renewing trust in the scientific enterprise. It will explore the transition from boundaries to breakthroughs, where knowledge becomes the catalyst for global transformation.

About Sunway IGSC

The Sunway Institute for Global Strategy and Competitiveness conducts fundamental and translational research on how governments, industries and communities compete and develop, redefining competitiveness to treat social and environmental conditions as explicit factors rather than externalities.

Its work centers around Return-on-Values (ROV), which is value created across four pillars: economic, social, environmental, and the political empowerment of communities. The Institute develops frameworks intended for use by policymakers, businesses and practitioners, with the aim of making regenerative competitiveness practical.

Follow us for more similar events: https://linktr.ee/sunwayigsc

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