尊敬的薛澜教授、龚克教授，来宾们、同事们、朋友们：

大家新年好！欢迎参加“人工智能与高质量人类发展”政策对话。

We believe this is a great topic to kick off the year, building on the release late last year of UNDP’s regional report on AI’s potential – and perils – in realising high-quality, sustainable development. 

Artificial intelligence is transforming every economy, and every life – for better, or worse. 

Like other technologies before it, including electricity and the Internet, AI could catapult human progress… In health, education, services and engineering. 

But… unless managed: AI risks widening the vast inequalities on which it is rapidly being built… deepening divides between countries, and within them. 

Our most powerful technology yet is evolving – almost unchecked – and is doing so on dangerously uneven ground. 

The Asia-Pacific has: a 200-fold income gap [1] , 1.3 billion informal workers ,and 200 million people in extreme poverty. 

Only 14 percent of this region use AI. Meaning… it could leave behind 3.7 billion people. [2] 

Among the most vulnerable… are women… For three reasons:

1. Firstly, their jobs are far more exposed to automation. Due to occupational segregation, far more women work in clerical and administrative roles twice as likely to be replaced by AI. Women are also more likely to work in informal and care sectors, with weaker social protection. 

2. Secondly, women lack access to the digital tools needed to work with AI, further increasing their risk of being replaced by it. In South Asia for instance, they are 40 percent less likely to own a smartphone. 

3. Thirdly, when women are excluded digitally, they are also excluded in data. AI models for scoring credit or social protection learn from male-dominated data. Systems that rarely see women often misclassify them as "high risk," denying them jobs or finance.

When half the population lacks the skills or hardware to access the latest digital technologies, entire economies are held back, too. In particular, vital sectors like healthcare, education and finance.

UNDP’s new report on “The Next Great Divergence”, explains how governments can avoid this. Namely: by expanding digital access, literacy and safeguards, now.