Will AI kill development?

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Ian Goldin asks if robotisation will prevent poorer countries taking the traditional route to prosperity. Since World War Two, nation after nation has more or less followed the same growth path. As the workforce has moved away from farming, they have created low-skilled industrial jobs, utilising their advantage of cheap labour. Gradually they have moved up the value chain, producing more and more sophisticated goods, before moving towards a service economy. But robots can now can replace even a low-paid factory workforce. So what does that mean for countries still struggling near the bottom of the development ladder?

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a revolution going on that will affect us all. It's said that artificial intelligence or AI could boost the world economy by almost a fifth in little more than a decade
0:18.2	adding over 13 trillion dollars
0:21.8	Optimists believe we're about to enjoy wonderful benefits.
0:25.0	We are driving humanity forward in terms of tech and impacting the bottom of the pyramid.
0:31.0	This is development.
0:33.0	However, others predict automation could affect two-thirds of all jobs, as robots do the things people are currently paid to do.
0:43.0	Any job that requires the use of our eyes and years and mouth,
0:48.0	AI will surpass us.
0:50.0	So who benefits and who pays the price and what does this revolution mean for poorer
0:57.0	countries. I'm Ian Golden, the Professor of Globalization and Development at Oxford University, where I lead a program looking
1:05.0	into the impact of disruptive technologies.
1:08.3	Previously, I was Vice President and Head of Policy for the World Bank Group, and before
1:12.4	that, Economic Advisor to President Mandela.
1:15.0	And this hour on the BBC World Service I'm asking
1:19.0	will AI kill development. of over a million people, many of them very poor in Nairobi, Kenya.
1:35.0	We've come into this narrow alleyway, mud houses with corrugated iron roofs here.
1:41.0	Clearly it's a community that doesn't have much in terms of
1:45.2	sanitation and other resources like and so it's remarkable to
1:59.2	discover that right here there are hundreds of people involved in creating some of the world's most sophisticated technology.
2:07.0	I'm doing data training for AI.
2:10.0	Data training for AI.
2:12.0	What does that mean? Data training for AI. What does that mean?
	...

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