Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often hailed as the next pinnacle of human innovation, with its potential to revolutionize industries, transform economies, and enhance lives. However, it’s crucial to consider whether AI will genuinely benefit everyone or exacerbate existing disparities. The outcome depends on how AI is developed, deployed, and governed.
Affordability and Accessibility
Encouragingly, the cost of AI development is decreasing. For instance, while training OpenAI’s GPT-4 cost $100 million, DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, claims its comparable model costs significantly less. This trend is promising for developing countries that typically lack the vast financial resources required by previous AI innovations. However, conscious decisions today will determine if AI becomes an instrument of inclusion or exclusion.
Incentives and Priorities
Currently, AI development is largely driven by market forces, focusing excessively on automation and monetizing personal data. Leading AI countries invest billions in applications that replace jobs, thereby deepening inequality. Public subsidies often prioritize technical merits, which frequently aim for efficiency without adequately considering their direct and indirect social impact.
AI’s Impact on Employment
Job displacement often leads to economic, social, and political instability. Despite this, public funding continues to flow towards automation. Governments need to adjust incentives to promote AI that serves social needs, such as improving education and healthcare outcomes and combating climate issues. AI should augment human workers, not replace them.
Bridging the Development Gap
AI’s transformative potential remains largely untapped in low- and middle-income countries due to inadequate infrastructure, limited capabilities, and resource scarcity. If unaddressed, this technological divide will only widen global inequalities.
AI’s Potential in Healthcare and Education
Consider AI’s potential in healthcare: it could expand access to personalized medicine, offering tailored treatments with greater efficacy and fewer side effects to patients in resource-limited settings. AI could aid diagnosis, helping doctors detect diseases earlier and more accurately. It could also enhance medical education by using adaptive learning and real-time feedback to train healthcare professionals in underserved areas.
In broader terms, AI-driven adaptive learning systems are already personalizing educational content to meet individual needs and fill knowledge gaps. AI tutoring systems offer personalized instruction that boosts engagement and improves outcomes, making language learning and acquiring new skills significantly easier. This could drive massive economic opportunity expansion, especially for marginalized communities.
Global Cooperation and Ethical Use
Global cooperation is vital to unlock these benefits. AI should be tackled collectively, for example, through South-South initiatives to create tailored solutions for developing countries’ unique circumstances and needs. By fostering partnerships and knowledge exchange, lower-income countries can bridge the technological gap and ensure AI serves a broad range of interest groups beyond dominant players.
Ethical and security concerns also need global attention. Without robust ethical frameworks, AI can be—and already has been—misused for harmful purposes, from mass surveillance to spreading misinformation.
The international community must agree on shared principles to ensure AI’s consistent and responsible use. The United Nations, through inclusive platforms like the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, can shape global regulations. Key priorities should be transparency (ensuring AI decision-making is discernible and explainable), data sovereignty (protecting individuals’ and countries’ control over their data), harm prevention (banning applications that undermine human rights), and equitable access. Multilateral initiatives to develop digital infrastructure and skills can ensure no country is left behind.
Grassroots Movements and Public Pressure
This isn’t just a policy-maker or private sector issue. Historically, transformative change often begins at the grassroots. The women’s suffrage movement, civil rights movement, and climate activism all started with base efforts that grew into powerful change agents. A similar movement is needed to steer AI in the right direction.
Activists can highlight the risks of unregulated AI and pressure governments and businesses to prioritize human-centered innovation.
Key Questions and Answers
- Q: Will AI naturally promote inclusivity or exacerbate inequality? A: The effects of AI on society, economy, and politics won’t naturally lean towards inclusivity or equity. Governments must guide incentives toward enhancing human potential.
- Q: How can we ensure AI benefits everyone? A: Global cooperation, ethical governance, and public pressure can ensure we make the right decisions.
- Q: What role do incentives play in AI development? A: Incentives should promote AI that serves social needs, such as improving education and healthcare outcomes and combating climate issues.
- Q: How can we bridge the AI development gap between developed and developing nations? A: By addressing technological disparities, we can ensure AI benefits a broader range of stakeholders.
- Q: What are the potential benefits of AI in healthcare and education? A: AI can expand access to personalized medicine, aid diagnosis, and enhance medical education. In education, AI can personalize learning content and make acquiring new skills easier.
Authors:
Shamika Sirimanne is a Senior Advisor on Trade and Development at the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, the Landlocked Developing States and Small Island Developing States (UN-LDC-SLS).
Xiaolan Fu is a Leverhulme Research Fellow in Technology and International Development at the University of Oxford.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 1995 – 2025
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