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The danger in the Global Souths pursuit of AI as a magical cure
Much Western discourse on artificial intelligence has lately focused on establishing safeguards and installing guardrails against powerful new AI systems, algorithmic bias, the collusion of governments and tech oligarchs, and rising related environmental costs.The growing AI backlash in the West has been labelled a “botlash” in a recent commentary by Stanford University’s Marietje Schaake, who includes anti-AI movements such as “QuitGPT”, “Resist and Unsubscribe” and “Stealing Isn’t Innovation”.While developed countries begin to see the downsides of AI, the story for the Global South is the complete opposite: AI is being viewed as some magical cure for poor governance, corruption and weak economic development.Unlike developed countries, the Global South has yet to experience a localised and large-scale adoption of AI or a “bot boom”. But the bid to adopt AI without first developing localised governance, digital literacy and a research ecosystem brings risks of Global South populations becoming passive consumers of foreign technologies.AI is being pushed by political leaders and development agencies as the ultimate means of reigniting stagnant economic and development growth across the Global South, including Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Governments in these regions are presenting AI as a tool to fix bad governance, make healthcare and education more accessible, reduce corruption and manage climate-related disasters.Last year, for instance, Ethiopia launched its Digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy, which calls for the integration of AI in education, healthcare, tax services and justice. Similarly, Pakistan’s National AI Policy 2025 frames the technology as a transformative tool to be employed across the sectors of healthcare, education, governance, agriculture and industry. Many countries in Latin America, such as Chile, Argentina and Colombia, have also adopted national strategies that promote AI’s role in modernising public administration and fostering economic growth.
Utopia or dystopia? Time to grab the AI steering wheel
Overshadowed by rolling events in the Middle East, for 24 hours last week Canberra hosted one of the world’s most powerful tech leaders. I spoke to Dario Amodei, chief executive of AI giant Anthropic, in the midst of that flying visit, in front of a group of parliamentarians, experts, and media, in the Great Hall of Parliament. I have found Amodei’s explanations of the trajectory of artificial intelligence, technology that he has played an outsized role in developing, perplexing. Earlier this year, he published an essay setting out the risks that AI presents, sounding a warning bell that our window to shield ourselves is now. It is rare – and somewhat confusing – to have an innovator crying out for regulation even as they build their metaphorical nuclear bomb. As I asked Amodei himself – if the risks are as he fears, why are we even doing this? A cynic might suggest that both the utopian and dystopian futures on offer are helping build the hype that has led to a surge of capital, a pipeline of data infrastructure, and hopes across the private sector for a productivity boom. The truer answer is likely to be that Amodei believes deeply in the promise of technological breakthroughs to genuinely lift human welfare, while at the same time seeing that AI’s Chernobyl moment could come first. In our discussion, he was clearest about the risks that this technology poses in the hands of authoritarian governments, with its potential for mass surveillance and control. Given Anthropic’s stoush with the Trump administration, this is not a theoretical issue. It is becoming harder to ignore the transformative potential of generative AI tools. Strides in programming capability have been dramatic. Uptake in language-based professions, such as the law, has been swift. But concerns about accuracy and reliability persist. Borrowing words from American writer Kelsey Piper, using the technology feels simultaneously like having a genius at your beck and call, and yelling at your printer. Last week, Amodei urged us not to base our assessments on what we see the technology do today, but to look instead at the rate of change. Try something today, then again in three months. And then consider where we could be in just a few years. We should not baulk at powerful new discoveries, unless there is good reason to do so. Technology drives productivity growth. Without a major productivity boost, we face hard decisions about how to meet the needs and wants of a growing and ageing ...
The one piece of data that could actually shed light on your job and AI
Then in February, Anthropic used this data in its analysis of millions of Claude conversations to see which tasks people are actually using its AI to complete and where the two lists overlapped.
Anthropic's research shows that AI can already do a huge ... - Fortune
Peter McCrory talks about Anthropic's latest analysis of AI's role in occupations from computer programming to groundskeeping.
