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Artificial intelligence in the Global South: Inclusion is key  

Switzerland
07.11.2024
How can digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) help to reduce poverty? – Swisscontact explored this question at an event for customers, partners and interested parties. Around 150 guests attended the presentations and the lively panel discussion at Google Switzerland’s headquarters in Zurich. 

Thomas D. Meyer, Chairman of Swisscontact, opened the event and presented the organisation to the attendees. He talked about Swisscontact’s core competencies – business promotion and skills development – and stressed the significance of digitalisation and AI in development cooperation. 

Next, Sandra Emme from Google Switzerland, at whose premises the event was held, welcomed the participants and pointed out that today was not about Google, but about AI. 

Thomas D. Meyer, Chairman of Swisscontact welcomes the audience.
"AI should be developed with people, not only for them. If we want this technology to truly serve humanity, we must put the common good above profit."
Kasia Odrozek, Director, Insights team at Mozilla Foundation

How digitalisation helps people in concrete ways

Prashant Rana, Regional Director Asia at Swisscontact, explained how digitalisation and AI help people in concrete ways. He presented a project from Bangladesh that is working to promote sustainable agriculture. One of the tools developed jointly with the private sector is the world’s first livestock health- and life-insurance policy, which reimburses farmers for the cost of treating sick, insured cattle. This health insurance product uses state-of-the-art machine learning technology to identify the insured cattle by their muzzle print. Just as every human being has a unique fingerprint, each cow has a unique muzzle print, Rana explained. 

Local context and inclusion are crucial

In the subsequent panel discussion, Kasia Odrozek, Director of Insights at the Mozilla Foundation, Stefano Merante, Manager CATALYST Initiative ITCILO, Dr George Boateng, ETH Zurich and entrepreneur, and Alessia Evi, Advisor Digitalisation in Skills Development, discussed the challenges of AI in the Global South. 

George Boateng explained why AI and digitalisation must always be adapted to the local context. Using the example of his company Kwame AI Inc, an AI startup that has developed an app that serves as a knowledge assistant for researchers and learners, he explained how his app was trained to recognise different languages and accents. 

Dr George Boateng explains the advantages of the app that can recognise different languages and dialects.
"Learners should be able to ask the AI app questions in their local language and get responses from the local context, regardless of the language they speak."
Dr George Boateng, AI specialist, ETH Zurich, CEO and co-founder of Kwame AI Inc

He doubted that AI would boost productivity. People may become more efficient, but not necessarily more effective, said Stefano Merante, who heads up the CATALYST initiative of the International Labour Organization (ILO). What if AI did not improve the quality of life? – This question must also be answered in the context of workers’ rights.  

Stefano Merante is convinced that more data from the global South is needed.
"We need to work on governance, ethics and social dialogue around AI. More data from from the global South is needed – inclusive data is critical for a fair AI!"
Stefano Merante, Manager CATALYST International Training Centre of the ILO

Kaisa Odrozek stressed that public interest must be prioritised. The data for AI should serve society and important issues of our time, such as climate change.  

Kasia Odrozek, Director, Insights team at Mozilla Foundation 
Alessia Evi from Swiscontact highlighted the importance of a human-centred approach to AI. 
"The impact of digitalization, whether positive or negative, is not fixed: it hinges on decisions made about the technology's type, purpose, design, and the protective measures put in place. Consequently, a multi-stakeholders dialogue, and a human-centred approach to digitalization are essential for ensuring favourable outcomes."
Alessia Evi, Advisor Digitalisation in Skills Development at Swisscontact