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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.
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.
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.
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 at ITCILO. What if AI did not improve the quality of life? – This question must also be answered in the context of workers’ rights.
Kasia Odrozek stressed that public interest must be prioritised. AI should serve society and important issues of our time, such as healthcare. "We need a public AI ecosystem that supports such development," she said.