World Bank says ‘small AI’ could transform developing countries

The World Bank is urging developing countries to kickstart the creation of “small AI” models, which can run on a mobile phone with low connectivity, to reap the full benefits of artificial intelligence.

While Silicon Valley big tech firms are focused on ever more sophisticated consumer products, Paschal Donohoe, the World Bank’s chief knowledge officer, said AI could also accelerate development for emerging economies – but only if it was adapted to local needs.

Small AI uses specialised models that are trained using narrower datasets for a specific purpose.

“We argue that economic development in the countries that we serve and partner with that could have taken centuries to make happen, the potential is there for that economic development now to happen within decades,” Donohoe said.

“Small AI would be available in a local setting, with low connectivity, and in the local language of the community – and tends to be available on your mobile phone.”

Donohoe, a former finance minister for Ireland, cited the example of Indian farmers engaged in the World Bank’s agricultural scheme, AgriConnect, who needed to access soil analysis in their own language.

“There’s not going to be enough scientists and agricultural experts to do that for every small farm in India. And this is where what we describe as ‘small AI’ comes in. Because small AI is AI that would be available on your phone, that can help deliver against those information needs.”

He suggested such products could emerge from collaboration between the World Bank, governments and the private sector.

The impact of AI on jobs and growth is a central theme of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are being held this week in Bangkok, Thailand.

Speaking on a panel about the impact of the technology on Monday, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, called on governments to provide the preconditions for AI to succeed.

She said: “You need access to electricity. You need access to digital infrastructure. People have to be geared to adoption. And the government should be able to give some safety, protect against bad actors so that adoption can work.

“If we work hard to have the basics for it, [adoption] can be very democratic. As democratic as the cellphone.”

The World Bank’s annual world development report, published in August, hailed the potential benefits of AI. But it pointed out that, for example, almost a third of rural schools in sub-Saharan Africa lacked electricity and more than two-thirds did not have a consistent internet connection.

Georgieva warned that over time 40% of jobs worldwide were likely to be either augmented or eliminated by AI, with the impact particularly acute for young people at the start of their careers.

“When we look at this, what we recognise is that the people to worry about, first and foremost, are young people that are coming into the labour market,” she said. “Normally they would get into these routine, repetitive jobs and then go up the ranks. But if they’re gone, I don’t think any young person wants to be a barista in a coffee shop as a professional future.”

Under its president, Ajay Banga, the World Bank has made attracting private-sector funding into emerging economies a focus of its work.

Donohoe said the World Bank had mobilised $120bn (£90bn) of private capital in the past year using guarantees and other financial instruments, at a time when many countries, including the US and the UK, were cutting their aid budgets.

“We want to highlight the link between private capital mobilisation and jobs and economic development,” he said.