Can AI unite the world, Mr Sharma?

Artificial intelligence (AI) harbours risks. But it also opens up new opportunities in science, medicine, business, culture – and not least in politics. Gaurav Sharma knows this better than almost anyone else. “AI can facilitate communication right down to the lowest levels of population pyramids,” says the IT expert. For one thing because modern AI language models can now also be trained in rare dialects. For example, this breaks down language barriers amongst rural populations in developing countries and Indigenous groups. They are better able to communicate nationwide and represent their interests publicly; it also gives them access to services like disaster warning systems. And this all has an impact on international communications and politics, too: “Cross-border knowledge sharing can also benefit from AI,” Sharma is convinced. “Politics and diplomacy have now understood just what opportunities AI language models offer for international understanding.” 

In many countries, however, there are still no regulations governing the ethically and socially responsible use of AI. Even countries like Germany and the United States are only just beginning to introduce them. This is the objective of a project Sharma is conducting for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in India, Indonesia and five African countries. He is investigating, for instance, to what extent existing laws on AI transparency, which already exist in countries like India, can be applied to other countries.