World Bank warns developing countries to embrace AI or be left behind

Developing countries must embrace artificial intelligence to enhance governance and avoid being marginalized, the World Bank declared Tuesday, launching its annual World Development Report.

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AI has thrown developing economies a lifeline, and they should seize it.

Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group's Chief Economist, stated that AI offers a lifeline to developing economies, which they should seize. He advised that these nations do not require massive models or extensive data centers to benefit. Instead, the focus should be on adapting more affordable AI tools to local contexts to yield results in critical sectors such as health, education, justice, and agriculture.

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They do not need large models or big data centres to reap its benefits.

The report highlights that advanced AI models, predominantly developed in the United States and China, excel at rapid data analysis and task automation. However, their implementation demands substantial infrastructure, including huge data centers, significant computing power, and vast amounts of electricity and water, posing environmental concerns. The World Bank noted that developing economies are experiencing their weakest growth in three decades and that AI could provide a substantial boost before the end of the 2020s.

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AI could significantly boost that performance before the end of the 2020s while delivering tangible benefits to people.

The World Bank's report advocates for countries to utilize AI to extend essential medical, legal, educational, and agricultural services to billions of underserved people. It calls for investment in electricity generation and distribution, expanded access to computing power, and improved local data availability. Gaurav Nayyar, the report's director, stressed the narrow window of opportunity, calling AI a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to solve problems that have resisted solutions for generations."

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help extend otherwise costly medical, legal, educational and agricultural services to underserved billions, doing in a decade what might otherwise take a century.