LLDCS AND SIDS: TECHNOLOGY
A new technological revolution is changing the world – and a race is on to balance the impact for the greater good By Zakaria Hanafi and Howard Hudson, OPEC Fund HOW
TO IMPACT SIDS & LLDCS IS SET
A rtificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the world, profoundly and at breakneck speed: After the US research organization OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022 it reached 1 million users in five days and 100 million users in two months, making it the fastest growing internet app ever. Six months later it was available in more than 160 countries around the world and, among others, fueled a stock market boom with tech companies cementing their leading position in the global economy. But what about the billions of people at the so-called base of the pyramid? What will AI mean for emerging
economies, particularly far-flung Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs)? UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council in September 2023: “The spread and reach of this new technology in all its forms are utterly unprecedented. It has the potential to turbocharge global development, from monitoring the climate crisis to breakthroughs in medical research. But even its own designers have no idea where their stunning technological breakthrough may lead.” To assess the possible impact of AI, this new technology should be weighed across various sectors. Starting with
healthcare, think back just two years when the entire world was in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the main lessons was that the lack of reliable data delayed the development and rollout of effective responses. Today it is clear that advanced data handling can improve continuity of healthcare and help create massive datasets to verify treatments in a more timely manner. For agriculture, AI-based data observatories can help governments better predict food production trends and incentives. New insights can improve crop storage, reduce waste and spoilage, and provide better information about what types of interventions are needed by farmers in remote areas. It can also
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