GENEVA, July 7 (Reuters) - AI-powered robotic vehicles could deliver food parcels to conflict and disaster zones by as early as next year in a move aimed to spare the lives of humanitarian workers, a World Food Programme (WFP) official told Reuters. Attacks against aid workers have intensified in recent years amid the highest number of violent conflicts since World War Two, according to the United Nations. WFP, the U.N.'s food aid agency, alone lost three workers earlier this year in Sudan's conflict. They were first conceived during the battle for Syria's Aleppo, between 2012 and 2016, when humanitarian workers struggled to get aid to besieged parts of the city, Kowatsch said. AI is used to combine data gleaned from various sources including satellite and sensors, allowing remote drivers to steer the vehicles.

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Persons: Bernhard Kowatsch, Kowatsch, Emma Farge, Frank Jack Daniel Our Organizations: Food Programme, Reuters, United Nations, WFP, International Telecommunication Union, Air, Emergency, German Aerospace Center, Thomson Locations: GENEVA, Geneva, Aleppo, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan