AI with Developing Economies
Exploring the role AI plays in helping developing countries catch up to the global standard.
Over the past decade, Artificial Intelligence has revolutionized multiple fields globally. Numerous start-ups are centered solely around rethinking current paradigms with AI in mind and as of 7th October 2021, 78 of them have gone on to become unicorns (1)- companies worth over $1 billion dollars in valuation. Lots of established companies such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have also joined the race, building teams specifically to augment their existing products with AI. Health and finance-based organizations have also started looking into the fantastic possibilities AI is expected to bring in the near future. Moreover, AI will create more skilled jobs than it will affect manual jobs.
While building products powered by AI in the corporate environment is fairly straightforward and commonplace now, similar aspirations on a national level is quite a challenge, especially for developing countries like India. Developed countries like the United States already have the prerequisite infrastructure in place to adopt nationwide policies and practices to integrate AI into their incumbent system. They have launched a variety of programs to develop frameworks for AI including partnerships with allied countries. The only advantage developing countries have, is that they can identify and implement successful strategies from developed countries and skip the intermediary stages that were conducted to test the waters. Having this knowledge beforehand allows developing countries to catch up to the current standard much quickly and efficiently.
To develop their economy with AI’s aid, the national priorities should be focused on energy, education, healthcare, and finance. Demand for these services will grow with the population. Siemens AG(2), an organization working on the inclusion of AI in the power sector is a global leader in the field. They hired over a thousand AI specialists last year and have filed 81 patents over the same period, making them the most innovative AI company in the energy sector. AI can be used to develop more efficient designs and optimize infrastructure to reduce wastage and simultaneously generate more energy in a clean and affordable way by relying on renewable sources of energy. Most developing countries have started adopting renewables to meet some of their energy requirements.
Quality and accessible education is paramount for a country to have a reliable and competent workforce. Many developing countries battle with the shortage of quality training professionals as most of them switch to a non-teaching role of often leave the country in search of a more financially rewarding career in developed countries. As most of the population in developing countries now has access to smartphones, EdTech companies have never been in a better position to capitalize on the market. AI allows the development of applications that provide customized learning paths based on the individual’s performance and interests. This allows students to learn things that pique their interests at their own pace. Companies such as UpGrad, Byju’s, and Unacademy provide affordable and quality education to anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection. Even websites like YouTube and Wikipedia are excellent sources of knowledge with their databases spanning diverse topics in great depth and available to the masses at no cost.
The finance industry has significantly advanced thanks to AI. Predicting market trends and cash flow, automating mundane and error-prone tasks, risk assessment and fraud detection are some common applications of AI in finance. The field of quantitative finance uses advanced mathematical models and derives inferences from extremely large amounts of data to make decisions and analyze the financial market and modern machine learning techniques are used to draw insights. AI analytics will provide companies and governments greater insight and help them manage their finances better. The Indian ministry of finance(3) has multiple programs and initiatives that deal with studying the possible applications of AI and advanced technologies like blockchain to assist them in predicting the country’s economic growth and drafting policies and regulations for the future.
Having a competent healthcare infrastructure in place is challenging for developing countries. Telemedicine, or remote healthcare service provision, is not as potent as it was expected to be. All parts of the country have non-uniform healthcare services and an unfortunate dearth of well-trained medical professionals. Affordability is another important challenge. AI can be used for a diverse set of roles in the healthcare industry. Sophisticated anomaly and disease detectors can act as assistants to inexperienced or less qualified doctors and help them make accurate diagnoses while knowledge-based systems suggest appropriate medication for the patient. Pharmaceutical companies and government research agencies have benefitted immensely by using AI to promote the research and the development of new and effective drugs.
The Covid pandemic has disrupted the lives of people all over the world and the economies, especially developing countries, have suffered drastic setbacks. Countries with underdeveloped infrastructure were worst hit by supply chain disruption which caused shortages of necessities and hampered vaccination efforts. The infection rate and the number of cases are being continuously monitored by AI systems in an effort to minimize and control the damage as much as possible. AI was used extensively to support and drug discovery and vaccine development(4). It helped further by speeding up vaccination drives and distributions by predicting drug requirements and optimizing delivery routes(5). The recovery and progress towards the normal have been ameliorated and made much easier due to the proper application and adoption of AI.
No dialogue on AI can be concluded without discussing the necessary safeguards. It is a potentially limitless technology that seems to enhance everything it is integrated with, which is precisely why regulations and safeguards are absolutely imperative to ensure it is not misused. Transparency and bias are some causes for concern. The reasoning and justification for a decision are vital especially when the decision affects an entire country. XAI is a step in that direction. Bias can only be mitigated by ensuring the dataset is as impartial as possible. Usage of AI in weapons and arms development should be monitored and strictly regulated by responsible governing bodies, otherwise, it might trigger a global arms race. Applications directly affecting people such as self-driving cars and disease detection systems should be rigorously tested to minimize chances of error and inaccuracy. Proceeding with caution and proper regulations in place will allow developing countries to embrace AI and prosper and make meaningful scientific advancements.
REFERENCES:
1. 78 AI Companies Around The World That Are Unicorns Today
2. Companies leading the way for artificial intelligence in the power sector
3. Ministry of Finance (indiaai.gov.in)
4. Artificial Intelligence for COVID-19 Drug Discovery and Vaccine Development
5. How AI has helped in the transportation of vaccine delivery for COVID-19
