 | | Ruwangi Amarasinghe for RoW | | Alibaba's Qwen has been shining on benchmark tests, despite chip restrictions. READ MORE > | | Advocacy groups like AAPI Victory Alliance are using ChatGPT and Claude to reach speakers of Hindi, Tagalog, and more. READ MORE > | | As Amazon and Disney step back, Netflix invests in "locally authentic" content to grab subscribers in the region. READ MORE > | | Rest of World received exclusive access to a platform that tracks patterns and timing of Chinese online censorship. READ MORE > | | Dispatches from the ground  In today's edition, Khadija Alam, Rest of World's data reporting intern, recaps our inaugural UNGA Week event, "AI Outside the West." | |  | | Cengiz Yar / RoW | | Last week, Rest of World hosted our first U.S.-based event, "AI Outside the West: Elections, Disruptions, and Opportunity," in partnership with Luminate. The event brought together global experts from the public and private sectors for lively discussions about the impact of AI.
Our Editor-in-Chief Anup Kaphle kicked off the event by moderating a panel about the effects of AI on elections around the world this year with speakers Lindiwe Mazibuko, founder and CEO of Futurelect; Ika Ningtyas, fact-checking coordinator at Tempo Indonesia; Cristina Martínez Pinto, founder and CEO of PIT Policy Lab; and Samir Patil, founder of Scroll.in. One point of consensus from the panel was that AI didn't end up having the doomsday effect on global elections that many pundits had expected. Despite some prominent deepfake videos and clips of inauthentic audio, AI-generated content seemingly failed to influence voters en masse. Panelists agreed that social media platforms were rife with misinformation with or without AI — and while AI has the potential to exacerbate the situation, the technology isn't there just yet.
Div Turakhia, founder of AI.tech, joined Anup for a one-on-one conversation on the promise of AI from the perspective of an entrepreneur. Turakhia was most excited about the use of AI to increase efficiency and, in turn, boost productivity. He pushed back on the narrative of AI stealing jobs and compared the technology to other widely adopted tools over history. As a Dubai resident, Turakhia also provided his perspective on the tech scene in the United Arab Emirates.
Our Southeast Asia Editor Rina Chandran moderated a panel on AI's impact on labor, culture, and society with speakers Irene Solaiman, head of global policy at Hugging Face; Dorothy Chou, director of policy and public engagement at Google DeepMind; and Nabiha Syed, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation. The group spoke about the importance of uplifting AI innovation in places far beyond Silicon Valley, and underscored that the effort was a shared responsibility: Companies should engage in educational efforts and governments should invest in upskilling. The use cases for AI extend beyond productivity — AI has the potential to help preserve cultural diversity. Countries are creating their own LLMs (large language models), which have cultural nuances that Western ones don't. And with AI's translation capabilities, this has the power to connect communities around the world.
To cap off the event, our Founder and Publisher Sophie Schmidt chatted with Bosun Tijani, Nigeria's minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy. A year ago, Tijani transitioned from running a tech business to running one of the most important departments in the country. He spoke about the huge potential for AI to improve the everyday lives of Nigerians and the limitation of the private sector in making massive countrywide shifts in sectors like education. Now that he works in the government, Tijani said, he sees many more opportunities to transform Nigeria's economy. He also discussed how the Nigerian government plans to create millions of jobs in the tech sector and accelerate the development of the country's technology ecosystem. | | On location  This South Asian country launched its first tech park — for companies to set up offices and factories — in 2015. But most of the facility remains unused. Do you know where it's located? | |  | | A J Ghani for RoW | | What we're reading - Researchers believe a real victim was targeted for intel during a Chinese university hacking contest. (Wired)
- YouTube and Shopee co-launched an online shopping service in Indonesia. (Reuters)
- Cwenga Lib built a new plant in Johannesburg to recycle lithium-ion batteries. (Tech Central)
- China's manufacturing export surge is threatening its ties with developing countries. (Foreign Policy)
| | And one more thing... In Ecuador, ride-hailing apps have been considered illegal — if caught, drivers had to pay a fine of up to $920 or risk getting their cars impounded. These fines have been deemed unconstitutional, however, in a ruling made last month. The legal status of the apps is still dicey, but gig workers in the country celebrated the decision as a positive sign. | | | | |
