As AI rapidly transforms from a commercial product into core social infrastructure, existing regulatory and oversight systems are failing to keep pace with its societal impacts. This governance gap risks deepening global inequalities, particularly disadvantaging the Global South, and underscores the urgent need for international development institutions to treat AI as a development issue.
India’s push to become an AI powerhouse is not as weightless as it appears. Its expanding infrastructure may shift environmental and social costs onto vulnerable communities.
AI is reshaping our world—but not equally. This article explores how artificial intelligence amplifies existing global inequalities, concentrating benefits in the Global North while pushing environmental burdens and ethical risks onto the Global South. Drawing on concepts like digital colonialism and disparities in AI investment, it reveals how access without autonomy reinforces injustice—and calls for a more democratic and inclusive technological future.
