Tech has revolutionized our society – creating novel ways for billions of people to connect, learn, work, and play. Revolutions in medicine, education, finance, and media have contributed to making our lives better and pulling people from around the globe closer together.
Artificial Intelligence apps like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Sora and others take the world by storm. Moving at breakneck speed and known as generative AI, the technology powering these apps raises new opportunities as well as key questions regarding property rights, privacy, misinformation and more. In parallel, 2024 marks our first year of “AI elections”, where two billion people from more than 50 countries are expected to head to the polls, in a global environment where there is a rise in authoritarianism and polarization, often aided by technology.
In this context it is urgent, now more than ever, that we regain our agency and become more responsive to the new challenges and opportunities posed by digital technology as things move ever faster.
Diving deep into the patterns embedded in the work of Ashoka Fellows working with and on technology shows us a path forward for what works and what’s next. We have learned that tech benefits people and the planet when it is designed with a long-term view, it unleashes agency, is complemented by human judgment and networks of trust, and enables sharing in new ways. This requires shifts in the ways we build our technologies, and in the safeguards, laws and policies that keep harms at bay.
The world is better than we think. In pockets across the globe, humans are pioneering and implementing working, real-life solutions — answers to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
For more insights shaping the future of Tech for Humanity, click here.