According to the report, the rapid rise of AI brings not only dazzling opportunities but also uncomfortable truths, especially for communities already struggling to secure basic needs like education, electricity, and stable internet access.
The authors caution that unless governments act swiftly, the lion’s share of AI’s benefits will flow to wealthier nations, leaving developing countries further behind in the global race for progress.
The report compares this emerging divide to the Great Divergence of the Industrial Revolution, when Western nations surged ahead while much of the world lagged in their shadow.
Michael Muthukrishna, the report’s lead author and a scholar at the London School of Economics, noted that societies often overestimate technology and underestimate people.
He stressed that the real conversation should not revolve solely around productivity or competition, but around how AI reshapes the daily realities of human life.
The report highlights that millions across Asia Pacific still lack internet access, making it harder for them to benefit from digital IDs, online payments, remote education, and essential skills. In such places, AI might feel less like a breakthrough and more like a distant luxury.
Countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore are positioned to make full use of AI, while nations like Afghanistan, Maldives, and Myanmar face steep hurdles from unreliable power grids to shortages of trained workers. Even within advanced economies, certain regions remain at risk of being left on the sidelines.
Yet the report also emphasizes AI’s immense potential. With the right investments, AI could enhance agriculture in rural communities, speed up medical diagnoses, sharpen weather predictions, and help assess damage after natural disasters. In other words, AI can be both a lifeline and a ladder, but only if access is fair and widespread.
UNDP’s chief economist for Asia Pacific, Philippe Scholtens, warned that if these gaps remain unaddressed, large populations will struggle to participate fully in the global economy and risk falling even further behind. He called for more balance, less hype, and fewer blind spots.
The report also cautions that without transparency and proper regulations, AI may reinforce existing biases placing minority groups and vulnerable communities at even greater risk.
Many AI systems still operate like black boxes, making it difficult to understand how decisions are made.
At the very end of this chapter, the report urges governments to invest in digital infrastructure, education, fair competition, and social protection.
It argues that AI has become as essential as electricity, roads, and the internet, and that ensuring equal access is no longer optional, but fundamental.
Ultimately, the goal is clear to democratize AI, so that every nation and every community can share in its benefits, while safeguarding those who stand to lose the most from rapid change.
