AI literacy should be mandatory subjects for every university student, regardless of their degree programme. This training must be grounded in learning how to learn and unlearn, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, says the writer.
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Arthur Mutambara Arthur Mutambara
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Prof. Arthur G.O. Mutambara
The AI-driven 4IR presents an unprecedented and unique opportunity for the Global South to exert its influence, assume agency, actively participate, and leverage technology to achieve inclusive development and shared prosperity.
The Global South refers to a socio-economic and geopolitical concept rather than a precise geographical location. It describes emerging economies and countries that are least industrialised.
Consequently, the Global South is also known as the developing world or as a grouping of developing economies. The Global South broadly comprises Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia (excluding Israel, Japan, and South Korea), and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand).
The Global North includes North America, Europe, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The world’s highly industrialised countries constitute the Global North, whereas the Global South comprises emerging and least industrialised economies.
Comparing the populations of the Global South and Global North, it is evident that there are more people in the former than the latter. Hence, the term Global Majority is sometimes used instead of Global South.
The phrase Global Majority has the utility of emphasising the primacy, centrality, and importance of the demands, aspirations, and ambitions of the Global South ahead of those of the Global North – the Global Minority.
Development is often associated with progress in areas such as income, education, health, human rights, and industrialisation.
The objective is to improve a population’s standard of living through factors such as wealth creation and distribution, social differentiation, industrial transformation, and economic growth. AI can play a critical role in achieving such ambitions and aspirations.
However, given its history of rabid colonisation and exploitation by the Global North, extreme inequalities, and abject poverty, the Global South requires a special type of development – inclusive development. This emphasis seeks to ensure that the benefits of development are shared broadly across all segments of society, particularly the marginalised and vulnerable.
Economist Amartya Sen proposed this approach to human development within the broader thesis articulated in his seminal book, “Development as Freedom.”Economic and social inequality can hinder development and lead to social unrest. Corruption, incompetence, and poor governance undermine development by diverting resources away from public goods and services, underutilising capacity, and leading to a lack of accountability.
While globalisation and technology can drive economic growth, they can also exacerbate inequalities, lead to cultural homogenisation, and create a digital divide. Political instability and conflict can disrupt development efforts, leading to setbacks in economic and social progress.
Indeed, there are potential obstacles to the developmental ambition and trajectory of the Global South.
Shared prosperity and development are linked. Prosperity encompasses various dimensions of well-being, including economic wealth, social stability, health, and overall quality of life. Indeed, prosperity is often associated with material abundance, but it also includes non-material aspects such as happiness, satisfaction, and the ability to lead a fulfilling life.
In most Global North countries, economic performance is not shared among the general population.This is hugely problematic.Africa and the rest of the Global South require inclusive development, leading to shared prosperity. GDP per capita is more important than GDP.
The Gini coefficient is more important than the GDP growth rate. In a country, the size of the middle class as a percentage of the population is a critical metric that should be closely monitored and tracked.
However, this is never done.
Only traditional economic metrics such as GDP and GDP per capita are measured and analysed.
It is instructive and prudent to note that key countries in the Global North, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, have not achieved inclusive development or shared prosperity.
The Gini coefficient, also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a statistical measure of economic inequality within a population. It measures the income dispersion or wealth distribution among a country’s citizens.
The Gini coefficient is one of the most frequently used measures of economic inequality. The coefficient takes values between zero and one.
A coefficient of zero indicates perfect equality in the distribution of income or wealth within a population, while a coefficient of one represents perfect inequality or absolute disparity, where one person in a population receives all the wealth or assets. In contrast, the rest of the population gets nothing.
South Africa has the world’s highest Gini coefficient for income, at 0.67. This explains the country's perennial challenges of staggering inequality, abject poverty, and unrelenting unemployment despite being Africa’s most industrialised country and biggest economy in terms of GDP.
One of the most potent tools for shared economic growth is quality education, characterised by quantifiable skills, competencies and capabilities anchored by financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills. Financial literacy, computer literacy, entrepreneurship, digital skills, and AI literacy should be mandatory subjects for every university student, regardless of their degree programme.
Even better, these subjects must be introduced in Secondary School, if not Primary School. This training must be grounded in learning how to learn and unlearn, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
The Global South doesn’t just want development. It seeks inclusive development. The economic growth must be shared.
People in developing and least industrialised countries don’t just desire prosperity. They demand shared prosperity – the creation of societies where everyone can improve their lives and benefit from economic growth. Indeed, opportunity economies must characterise the Global South.
This involves reducing inequality, ensuring equitable access to resources and opportunities, and promoting sustainable development.
The questions are: What is the potential role of AI in igniting and powering the pursuit of inclusive development and shared prosperity in the Global South? In which economic sectors, and in what ways? What are the use cases, AI tools, expected impact, and associated risks?
Prof. Arthur G.O. Mutambara is the Director and Full Professor of the Institute for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg. This is an excerpt from his book: Artificial Intelligence: A Driver of Inclusive Development and Shared Prosperity for The Global South.
