ITU leader warns AI access gap could widen inequality
ITU Deputy Secretary-General Tomas Lamanauskas told Al Jazeera that unequal connectivity, computing capacity and language coverage could widen AI opportunity gaps. This is one reported interview, not a new funded programme.
Artificial Intelligence··Morning
The divide begins before a model is used
On October 25, Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy head of the International Telecommunication Union, told Al Jazeera that artificial intelligence could widen the opportunity gap between richer and poorer countries. The interview took place in Doha during an investment forum convened by UNCTAD. His concern extends beyond whether someone can open an AI app: health, education, public services, agriculture and trade may all gain from the technology, while places without adequate digital infrastructure may struggle to build or use it. The interview is a warning from one international official, not an announcement that a new programme has begun.[1]
Access and language shape who benefits
Lamanauskas described the concentration of computing facilities: Africa and Latin America together account for just 3.3 percent of the world’s data-centre capacity and said the number of people offline worldwide is 2.2 billion. He put uptake of generative AI among working-age people at 29 percent in wealthier states, against 16 percent in developing economies. He also said AI translation tools cover only 7 percent of African languages. These figures describe different parts of the same obstacle: computing capacity, basic connectivity, practical uptake and language support are distributed unevenly. The interview does not show that any one of those factors alone caused the measured adoption gap.[1]
An investment estimate is not a commitment
He put the investment still needed for digital infrastructure through 2030 at US$2.8 trillion. That is an investment-needs estimate, not spending already made or financing that governments have pledged. He called for infrastructure, education and regulation to help countries participate. The interview also discussed employment, but Fazl Barez of Oxford University drew a distinction between having software perform some duties and losing an entire occupation. Neither speaker offered a verified forecast for how many workers in any one country would lose work. The policy question raised by the interview is where capacity, language coverage and skills must improve before potential AI benefits can be shared more widely.[1]
