Only an inclusive approach to AI governance can ensure shared prosperity.

 

This section presents the current state of frontier technologies and the global AI landscape, revealing significant disparities in countries’ capacity to adopt, adapt and develop AI. This sets the stage for the rest of the report, which delves into the impact of AI on productivity and the workforce, and examines the promises and perils of AI applications for developing countries, through case studies in different sectors. For a new technology to reach its full potential, a number of conditions must be fulfilled. The spread of electricity, for example, relied on national power grids, and the success of the Internet depended on fibre-optic networks with cables crossing continents and ocean beds. The transformations brought by new technologies also depend on the willingness and capacity to redesign factories and business processes worldwide. Taking advantage of AI systems requires even more robust broadband infrastructure that can carry massive flows of data, and building essential programming and other skills. This section assesses national AI readiness and capacity based on the three critical leverage points: infrastructure, data and skills. With regard to AI adoption and development, many developing countries are still in the early stages and lack dedicated strategies or instruments to address AI-specific needs.

 The section shows how Governments can strengthen their AI capabilities, steer AI adoption and development and seize opportunities, by presenting good practices and lessons learned of national efforts. Catching up requires the alignment of industrial policies and STI policies, to keep pace with the constant redefinition of competitiveness due to digital technologies and innovation. AI also poses challenges at the transnational level, with the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities between and within countries and to undermine global efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. As this section shows, international governance of AI is still fragmented. Strengthening and harmonizing it requires deeper international cooperation. Working together, Governments can co-create an inclusive global framework that fosters accountability, international collaboration and capacity-building. Only an inclusive approach to AI governance can ensure shared prosperity.