Dangers in the age of AI

Artificial Intelligence may change some things, but not all

Artificial intelligence may be be the new rage, as it has an impact on more things than we can imagine, but even before the question can be answered whether it will mean the destruction of jobs, the spectre of its being used for bank fraud has been raised in a report by the International Monetary Fund. Another report, from Microsoft this time, also points out another way in which AI is likely to be used as a means of perpetuating the divide between haves and have-nots. While AI is making the world’s banking systems vulnerable to criminals from all over the world, according to the IMF, which means we should chalk one up for globalization. Microsoft reports that the divide between developed and developing countries in AI usage is increasing.

Whereas 27.5 percent of working people used AI in developing countries in the first quarter of 2026, only 15.4 percent of working people in developing countries did, a gap of 12.1 percent, which is up 1.5 percent from the gap found at the end of the last quarter of 2025. This is based on users of Microsoft operating systems, which carry Chat GPT and Gemini embedded. This does not account for the use of coder’s tools, which Microsoft expects to increase AI use. However, according to Layoffs [dot] fyi, there have been 99,000 layoffs in the tech sector, which could be the result of the adoption of AI. There are many predictions by enthusiasts that AI will mean the creation of more jobs, but that does not seem to be happening yet. At the present stage of the transition, jobs, it seems, are being lost. If job creation occurs, it will probably be later.

The gap between the developing and developed world should be worrisome for countries like Pakistan, who have vowed to increase IT software exports and to exploit their demographic bulge by equipping their youth with the right skills. There has been unreliable electricity, and unreliable internet identified, not to mention the automatic bias of the AI tools being trained in developed countries’ languages. Let the natural innovativeness of the people unfold, by giving them access to AI, to computers and to power. Let everything else be subordinated to this goal. Then watch them.