Microsoft pledges $50 billion to tackle growing AI inequality

By Hanna Ziady, CNN

London (CNN) — Microsoft says it is on track to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to help bring artificial intelligence to lower-income countries, as concerns mount over the technology’s potential to deepen inequality.

The announcement was made Wednesday at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, where leading tech executives, government officials and AI researchers are debating how to use AI to solve real-world problems.

Policymakers globally are increasingly worried that the unequal adoption of AI risks widening income and development gaps between rich and poor countries. In December, the United Nations Development Project called for global cooperation on standards and safety to ensure the technology “functions as a shared public good rather than a concentrated advantage.”

At the summit, Microsoft likewise expressed the need for cross-border partnerships to prevent poorer countries from being left behind.

“We need to act with urgency to address the growing AI divide,” Microsoft president Brad Smith and chief responsible AI officer Natasha Crampton said in a joint statement. “Artificial intelligence is diffusing at an impressive speed, but its adoption around the world remains profoundly uneven.”

A recent Microsoft report found that AI usage in the global north, a catch-all term for developed and high-income countries, is roughly twice that of the global south — and growing.

“This disparity impacts not only national and regional economic growth, but whether AI can deliver on its broader promise of expanding opportunity and prosperity around the world,” Smith and Crampton said.

They warned that, just as unequal access to electricity has exacerbated a growing economic gap between the global north and south, without urgent action, the AI divide could perpetuate that disparity in the century ahead.

On the other hand, the technology could be used positively to help poor countries leapfrog older development pathways. “If AI is deployed broadly and used well by a young and growing population, it offers a real prospect for catch-up economic growth for the Global South,” said Smith and Crampton.

“It might even provide the biggest such opportunity of the 21st century,” the pair said.

Microsoft’s $50 billion investment will, among other things, help to build the data centers crucial to providing the computing power needed to run AI models. Extending internet access is another focus.

Only about 36% of Africa’s population had broadband internet access in 2022, according to the World Bank. That compares with some 90% of US households, official figures show.

The AI Impact Summit, hosted by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlights the country’s ambition to position itself as an AI leader in the global south.

High-profile attendees include Sam Altman of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Google CEO Sundar Pichai who is due to deliver a keynote address on Friday.

The-CNN-Wire
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