Compare the potential for wider access to useful tools with the risk of concentrating wealth and power.
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The top 3 AI companies are worth more than the GDP of most African nations combined. AI concentrates wealth in a handful of companies in a handful of cities in a handful of countries. The rest of the world provides the data and receives the disruption.
Small businesses and developing economies can now compete with corporations using AI tools that cost a fraction of hiring equivalent human expertise. A solo entrepreneur with AI can produce marketing, code, and legal documents that previously required a team of expensive professionals.
Access to advanced AI requires expensive compute infrastructure, technical talent, and massive datasets — resources that are overwhelmingly concentrated in wealthy nations. The "AI divide" will make the "digital divide" look minor by comparison.
Open-source AI models like Llama and Mistral are freely available worldwide. The cost of running AI is dropping 10x every 18 months. Unlike previous technology waves controlled by corporations, the tools of AI are becoming genuinely accessible.
