Digital Divide (2.0): the Shadow of AI Technology

It is largely accepted that technology creates a digital divide in a development context. Generally, to face the digital divide, countermeasures such as capacity building, knowledge and know-how transfer, and beneficiaries’ involvement are applied to accompany technology deployment for development projects. Although the efficiency of such countermeasures is relative and debatable, they doubtlessly contribute to create an ecosystem where hope is permitted, for developing countries, to catch up and to be successful in their digital transformation process. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and its massive worldwide promotion, such hope does not seem to be allowed anymore in developing and less-developed countries. AI technologies are designed and developed for technologically advanced environments in wealthy countries, and it has been shown that they have the potential to exacerbate problems in less-wealthy nations. In this article, it is shown that AI technology is intrinsically digital divide pro, and that there is no possible countermeasure against its potentially devastating effects on international development. This leads to a substantial concern that progress in AI technologies and the pressure to adopt them may increase inequalities both between and within countries, in ways which counteract the overall purpose of development. We call this new unbeatable form of digital divide the ‘digital divide (2.0)’, and we argue that AI is a perfect example of technologies that create and consolidate it.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; digital divide; international development; technology for development