The UN findings coincide with a surge of spending on AI in developed nations, led by hundreds of billions of dollars in planned investments in the US for data centres and related infrastructure. — Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
Most people in the developing world expect artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity over the next year, the United Nations found, with new technologies potentially helping to counter an "unprecedented slowdown” in human development.
Some 70% of the population in countries with low and medium human development scores anticipate productivity gains from AI, the UN Development Programme said in a new report. Two in three respondents envision using AI in education, health or other work, according to a survey of 21 countries representing nearly two-thirds of the world’s population, including China, India and Brazil.
The report also found that global human development is projected to have risen last year at the slowest pace since 1990 amid wars, trade tensions and a worsening debt crisis. Lingering economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has also weighed on development rates, while inequality between the most and least developed countries has risen for four consecutive years, according to the report.
The UN findings coincide with a surge of spending on AI in developed nations, led by hundreds of billions of dollars in planned investments in the US for data centres and related infrastructure. Since the advent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, businesses and governments have poured money into artificial intelligence, seeking efficiency gains and research breakthroughs.
"Amidst this global turmoil, we must urgently explore new ways to drive development,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement. "New capabilities are emerging almost daily, and while AI is no panacea, the choices we make hold the potential to reignite human development and open new pathways and possibilities.”
Steiner’s office recommended a "human-centred approach” to AI by modernising education and health systems and embedding more human agency across AI systems. Rapid expansion of AI technologies threatens to further strain electrical grids and internet capacity, making it "more urgent than ever” to close those games, the UNDP said.
"With the right policies and focus on people, AI can be a crucial bridge to new knowledge, skills, and ideas that can empower everyone from farmers to small business owners,” Pedro Conceição, who headed the production of the report, said in a statement. – Bloomberg
