GENEVA, Dec 2 (KUNA) -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warned on Tuesday that artificial intelligence could deepen the divide between developed and developing countries unless proactive policies are adopted to mitigate its risks and ensure a fair distribution of its gains.
During a press briefing in Geneva, Chief Economist for UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Bureau Philip Schellekens announced the release of a new report titled "The Coming Great Divergence: Why AI Could Widen the Inequality Gap Between Nations."
He noted that the Asia-Pacific region is the most unequal in the world with a 200-fold income gap between the richest and poorest countries mentioning Singapore and Afghanistan.
He explained that innovation in artificial intelligence has become highly concentrated with only a handful of major economies accounting for the bulk of global investment noting that China alone holds around 70 percent of global AI patents.
Schellekens also emphasized the widening digital usage gap in low-income countries where more than 80 percent of rural residents are unable to use even basic digital tools such as spreadsheets warning that it is impossible to build an AI-driven economy when the workforce lacks fundamental digital skills.
The expert said that developing countries are facing a "double whammy" driving future inequality a capability gap that limits their ability to benefit from AI's gains and a vulnerability gap that makes them more exposed to its negative impacts.
He also noted that women's access to digital technology in parts of South Asia is up to 40 percent lower than that of men. In addition women's jobs in Asia are twice as exposed to automation as men's giving the divergence what he described as "a female face."
The UNDP expert called for moving beyond investment in hard technological infrastructure alone and towards strengthening human and institutional capacities and emphasized the importance of regional cooperation particularly for smaller economies through the establishment of shared data centers and pooled computational power allowing countries to share costs while maintaining data sovereignty.
He further urged the adoption of flexible national AI strategies tailored to each country's specific context stressing that the needs of developing nations differ fundamentally from those of advanced economies.
Schellekens stressed that artificial intelligence can be transformed into a tool for narrowing development gaps if it is governed responsibly on fair value-based foundations. (end)
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