IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2021 - 35

zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia " where
" Big Tech has been a driver of growing inequality and has facilitated the creation of a vast digital
underclass. " It provides many examples in different
countries of how dehumanized intelligent technologies are creating barriers to accessing a range of
social rights for those lacking internet access and
digital skills (in particular, A/IS literacy). Intensive
coercion and surveillance by governments and
industry, would damage social cohesion and contravene democratic principles and human rights.

Environmental degradation
Environmental degradation and over-exploitation
tend to disproportionally affect marginalized communities in LMICs and HICs.
A/IS provides the capability to analyze large interconnected databases that is essential for carrying
out many environmental studies. However, as stated
in [21], such systems, in particular data-intensive systems, may require massive computational resources
that consume considerable amounts of energy, and
therefore have a very large carbon footprint. Their
impact on the SDGs concerned with mitigating climate change is therefore clearly negative.
In addition, the same aspects of A/IS that enable
them to contribute to increasing productivity, as discussed above, may also lead them to contribute to
over-exploitation of resources.

Mindset limitations of the technology
developers
Applications reflect the needs and values of the
nations and the social classes that develop them.
Thus, A/IS R&D is inevitably biased toward those
topics that are most relevant to the nations and populations from which their researchers and professionals are drawn. Since A/IS technologies oriented
toward countries without a strong A/IS research
presence are few and far between, A/IS will tend to
increase inequalities not only within countries but
also between different countries.
It is now widely recognized, (see [7]), that big
data is a potentially disruptive technology that will
reflect and amplify the social biases, discriminations, and stereotypes embedded in the data, to
the detriment of inclusivity. Moreover, the view of
data science professionals is also skewed by their
belonging to small social groups that are lacking in

March 2021

diversity (generally white men of well-to-do classes
from HICs).
We conclude that, although the potential of A/IS
to contribute to achieving the SDGs would appear
to be significant, not every development of A/IS will
be fit for this purpose. A good deal of additional
research is needed to measure the impact of A/IS
applications on equity. A laissez-faire attitude that
leaves A/IS research to be driven exclusively by commercial interests would almost inevitably contribute
to increasing, rather than decreasing, inequality.
Solutions need to be developed for specific problems and conceived for specific contexts, based
on a thorough knowledge of the region, culture,
and values in question, with the object of maximizing the possibilities of adoption, instead of simply
transferring solutions conceived for high-income
populations.
It is well-known in the cooperation for development field that ICT that is not appropriate for a target community can be detrimental to social and
economic development, contributing, in particular,
to increasing inequality. How to avoid such an outcome in AI4Eq? A sagacious response would be to
start by using the knowledge and experience accumulated in the field of development studies, in general, and ICT4D, in particular.

Emergence of AI4Eq
The well-established field of ICT4D has made significant progress in ensuring that ICT contributes to
development [33]. Many studies are dedicated to
identifying critical success factors for, and barriers
to, the use of ICT in LMICs (see [34]). Surveys of
ICT4D literature such as those of [35]-[37] point to
the usual problems of poor infrastructure and lack
of human capital. In recent years, there has been an
upsurge in interest in ethical guidelines for ICT4D
research, development, and deployment-an area
which remained underdeveloped according to [38]
and [39]-in concordance with the human rightsbased approach (HRBA) to development defined by
the UN [12]. In this approach, human rights standards and principles provide a framework to ensure
that the target community fully benefits from development efforts.
An HRBA applied to ICT4D would require that all
possible beneficiaries participate in the design of the
ICT, that the ICT respond to the principle of nondiscrimination, both in its design (ensuring voices and

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2021

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