Davos, Jan 21 While artificial intelligence (AI) could add $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion to the global economy annually, there is also need to pay attention to the careers, lives and communities it will disrupt – including those who have already been left out of the global digital economy, according to a presentation at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting here on Tuesday.
“At a minimum, we must eliminate the existing digital divide. Despite the rapid proliferation of the internet across the globe, over 2.5 billion people still lack access to it. Nearly a third of the world’s population cannot take advantage of online services that are essential in today’s digital world such as finance and banking, education and healthcare,” Robert F. Smith founder CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a prominent US private equity firm, stated in his presentation.
Divides exist within developed countries, too. In the US, nearly 24 million people still lack access to high-speed internet. This prevents millions of Americans from accessing the services only broadband can provide and from fully participating in the economy, the report stated.
Instead of becoming a new economic wedge, AI could become a prolific source of generational wealth. So long as we take appropriate steps to prevent these tools from mimicking and reinforcing racial and gender biases, the innovation and economic growth AI would spur has the potential to generate prosperity for all.
With AI’s current trajectory, there will be three distinct waves of opportunity through which value will be captured. We are already seeing the first wave of value creation benefiting hardware vendors. The second wave will go to super scalers like Microsoft, Google, Oracle and other large companies that have the ability to broadly offer connectivity to compute. The third wave will benefit enterprise software vendors who provide AI and GenAI solution sets on top of their existing products, according to Smith.
These are the three distinct verticals on which we must focus efforts to enable equitable development and deployment of GenAI.
The good news is, unlike the digital revolution, we have the luxury of foresight. As AI evolves and established companies and new start-ups scale products, develop features and capture value at each stage, we must commit ourselves to ensuring everyone in every nation has access to the internet, AI education and tools, and processing power.
“As we stand at this crossroads, we must think expansively and act decisively to ensure we unlock GenAI’s full potential,” Smith added.
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