By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

THE world today, according to Michio Kaku, an American theoretical physicist, is witnessing the fast evolution of technology that is changing our lives. In the book, Physics of the Future, he gives us a glimpse into the technologies that will shape the next 100 years, “from AI and nanobots to space travel and medicine”.

Historian Yuval Noah Harari predicts that the AI revolution will create a “useless class”, a new unworking class, “just as mass industrialization created the working class”. Algorithms, he says, will push humans out of the job market, wealth and power might become concentrated in the hands of the tiny elite that owns the all-powerful algorithms, creating unprecedented social and political inequality.

This dilemma was echoed in Van Duüren’s book, Transforming While Performing, where the author suggests that old methods of planning and strategies no longer suffice and we are forced to look at “new ethical principles, laws, social and labour market reforms”.

Another political analyst, whose name I missed to take note, presented an analysis of the impact of the Digital Order and its interplay with the Military Order and the Economic Order. According to him, the Military Order is definitely dominated by the US, and the Economic Order by the US and some emerging regional political powers (India, China). The Digital Order is unique, he says, because it is not owned by governments, but corporations driven by profit alone. Harari compounds the predicament saying, “Alternatively, the algorithms might themselves become the owners. Human law already recognizes intersubjective entities like corporations and nations as “legal persons.”

In the Digital Order, the useless class will have virtually no political power, economically and militarily. It is, therefore, imperative that we brace for societal changes in a collective way, to strengthen human value. If sooner rather than later, “99 percent of human qualities and abilities are simply redundant for the performance of most modern jobs”, how will governments structure their economic strategies for the displaced? How specifically can women cope?

The Women in the Digital Economy Fund (Wi-DEF), a joint effort between USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation attempts to accelerate progress on closing the gender digital divide. USAID has committed “up to $50 million in Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) fund resources, subject to the availability of funds, and the Gates Foundation will commit $10 million by the end of 2026, with at least half of each of these commitments focused on Africa”. The Gates Foundation has committed to invest an additional “$40 million toward closing the digital gender divide in Africa and South Asia”. WiDEF endeavors to improve women’s livelihoods, economic security, and resilience, focusing on programs that support “digital access and affordability; the design and development, especially women-led development, of relevant products and tools; digital literacy and skills training; online safety and security; and sex-disaggregated data and research”.

These are but small short-term solutions that are commendable, but inadequate, given the staggering magnitude of displacement. Each government must incorporate strategies to address its own balance between efficiency in the labor force (using algorithms, AI and new technologies) vis-a-vis the legitimate need to sustain the active participation of its citizens to sustain a decent life.

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