Skip to content Skip to footer

AI Transforming the Global Economy: Bridging the Gap and Ensuring Inclusivity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the global economy, affecting almost 40 percent of jobs worldwide. While it promises to revolutionize productivity and boost global growth, it also raises concerns about job displacement and exacerbating inequality. As we stand on the brink of this technological revolution, it is crucial to ensure that AI benefits all, rather than widening the gap between the haves and have-nots.

AI has the potential to significantly impact labor income, with higher-income workers potentially experiencing a disproportionate increase due to AI complementing their work. This could lead to increased inequality, a troubling trend that policymakers must address proactively. Comprehensive social safety nets and retraining programs are essential to protect vulnerable workers and curb inequality during the AI transition.

The IMF has developed an AI Preparedness Index to help countries craft the right policies for AI adoption, measuring readiness in areas such as digital infrastructure, human-capital and labor-market policies, innovation and economic integration, and regulation and ethics. The findings reveal that wealthier economies, including advanced and some emerging market economies, tend to be better equipped for AI adoption than low-income countries, though there is considerable variation across countries.

In the legal sphere, AI and robotics are also making waves, with the American Bar Association holding its Fourth Annual AI and Robotics National Institute in 2023. The Institute covered topics such as AI and robotics national policy, key public policy documents, and compliance with AI transparency requirements.

Google DeepMind’s recent advancement in robotics, RT-2, brings us closer to a future of helpful robots. RT-2 is a vision-language-action (VLA) model that can directly output robotic actions, transferring knowledge from web data to inform robot behavior. This new approach has the potential to enable robots to handle complex, abstract tasks in highly variable environments, making them more adaptable and helpful in everyday life.

As AI and robotics continue to transform the global economy, it is essential to bridge the gap between advanced and low-income countries, ensuring that all can harness the benefits of these technologies. By focusing on inclusivity, policymakers can help create a future where AI and robotics contribute to prosperity for all.

Leave a comment

0.0/5