The Invisibility Hypothesis: Promises of AGI and the Future of the Global South
L. Juli\'an Lechuga L\'opez, Luis Lara

TL;DR
This paper explores how AGI could either democratize access to knowledge globally or deepen existing inequalities, especially affecting marginalized populations in the Global South, based on current AI deployment signals.
Contribution
It analyzes the social implications of AGI for the Global South, emphasizing potential pathways that could either reduce or exacerbate inequalities.
Findings
AGI may democratize knowledge and services globally.
Existing inequalities could be amplified by AGI.
Empirical signals suggest varied impacts for Latin America, Africa, and South Asia.
Abstract
Discussions surrounding Artificial General Intelligence have largely focused on technical feasibility, timelines, and existential risk, often treating its social impact as being the same across different populations. Less attention has been paid to how advanced AI systems may interact with existing global inequalities. This paper examines the implications of AGI for people in the Global South, arguing that the availability of highly autonomous, general-purpose cognitive systems does not guarantee equitable outcomes. We establish that, as scientific discovery, economic coordination, and governance become increasingly automated, the relevance of human individuals may become conditional on access to infrastructure, institutional inclusion, and geopolitical circumstances rather than skills or intelligence. Under this setting, the Global South faces different pathways: in the best case,…
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Taxonomy
TopicsEthics and Social Impacts of AI · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life · ICT in Developing Communities
