3 global development leaders share their hopes and fears for AI

The powerful new chatbot ChatGPT has raised awareness of generative artificial intelligence — or tools that don’t just analyze existing data but create new content. It’s one example of how advances in AI are moving more rapidly than our ability to comprehend their impact on society. Depending on how these technologies are developed, regulated, and used, they have the potential to increase access to opportunities or worsen poverty and inequality. At the Global Inclusive Growth Summit this week, global development experts shared their biggest hopes and fears for AI, along with what they think is required to ensure that these technologies will be a force for good. The event is presented by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and the Aspen Institute on the sidelines of the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. An opportunity to galvanize new talent There is an opportunity to use the excitement around generative AI to galvanize a whole new generation of young people to develop the skills needed to make the most of these technologies, said Danil Mikhailov, the executive director of data.org, an organization committed to data for social impact. “We need more interdisciplinary data scientists to understand how to work with communities, how to take the best from not just technical disciplines but also social sciences and humanities, and apply it for more responsible use of generative AI,” he said. But there’s also a general misunderstanding of what generative AI is. People think these tools are generating new thoughts, when really they draw on existing data to make predictions, Mikhailov said. And that opens up the risk that people will apply generative AI to things it is not intended or designed for. The promises and perils of democratizing technology For Vivian Schiller, the executive director of Aspen Digital, her biggest fear and hope for AI are two sides of the same coin. “One of the wonderful promising advances that AI can bring is the democratization of the technology,” she said. Her organization is an Aspen Institute initiative that works with groups across sectors to be responsible stewards of technology and the media. “So the possibility that it will not be controlled by just a few large companies, but that communities, individuals will have access to use AI to advance society,” Schiller said. “My biggest fear, however, is that democratization also brings with it the potential for misuse,” she said. “Unfortunately, there are bad actors out there and the potential that generative AI will be weaponized to deceive people, to cheat people, to hack into their security is great.” A critical window to have a truly global dialogue We can’t leave it to tech companies to figure out how these tools will affect society, said Vilas Dhar, the head of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a philanthropy focused on data and AI. Instead, governments, together with civil society, must join forces to ensure “every person feels agency to engage on these topics,” he said. “A teacher who’s using ChatGPT in the classroom probably knows more about how to use it as a productive tool than a regulator sitting far away or a tech company sitting even further,” he said. “If we’re able to create a social conversation, a public conversation, about the opportunities of AI to design a future where we center equity and community participation, we have a chance to do it.” But that window is closing, Dhar said, explaining how critical the next five years will be to have a truly global dialogue around AI in order to ensure that these tools benefit rather than harm society.