From privacy breaches to bias to job replacement to increased cyber threats, the risks of artificial intelligence have been widely touted. These pose threats across any industry, but experts say extra care must be taken in the development sector.
“AI's potential in development is vast, but it's a double-edged sword. Without careful consideration of questions of equity informing how new tools are designed and deployed, AI can amplify existing harms and create new ones,” Vilas Dhar, president of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, which explores how advances in information and technology can improve quality of life, told Devex.
Already the foundation, like many aid organizations, is using AI to do disaster damage assessments, predict local weather patterns for agricultural insight, tackle pollution, detect disease patterns, and more.