Even if AI and other innovations seem likely to fuel unemployment and deepen income inequality, no country can simply reject them outright. Instead, policymakers must navigate the complexities of various technologies' "appropriateness" to their own economies and development strategies.
OXFORD – We are living through humanity’s fourth industrial revolution, which is largely driven by breakthroughs in digital technologies. Some, like the internet and artificial intelligence, are converging and amplifying each other, with far-reaching consequences for economies and societies. For developing countries, the implications are profound, and questions concerning policy choices and the “appropriateness” of new technologies have become urgent.
Even if new technologies seem likely to fuel unemployment and deepen income inequality, no country can simply reject them outright. Instead, policymakers must understand the multifaceted and complex nature of a technology’s appropriateness (or inappropriateness) for development, and then pursue nuanced responses that aim to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms.
In development economics, an appropriate technology is defined as one tailored to fit the psychosocial and biophysical context prevailing in a particular location and period. Such tools are designed with a view to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economic aspects of the communities for which they are intended. A technology’s appropriateness for development thus can manifest across many dimensions.
OXFORD – We are living through humanity’s fourth industrial revolution, which is largely driven by breakthroughs in digital technologies. Some, like the internet and artificial intelligence, are converging and amplifying each other, with far-reaching consequences for economies and societies. For developing countries, the implications are profound, and questions concerning policy choices and the “appropriateness” of new technologies have become urgent.
Even if new technologies seem likely to fuel unemployment and deepen income inequality, no country can simply reject them outright. Instead, policymakers must understand the multifaceted and complex nature of a technology’s appropriateness (or inappropriateness) for development, and then pursue nuanced responses that aim to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms.
In development economics, an appropriate technology is defined as one tailored to fit the psychosocial and biophysical context prevailing in a particular location and period. Such tools are designed with a view to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economic aspects of the communities for which they are intended. A technology’s appropriateness for development thus can manifest across many dimensions.